The Iceberg
by Spotted.Newt
Summary: [OLD VERSION: see new version, Shadow Wolf: The Iceberg] Four years ago, Hydra put Project HSCL into action. Four years ago, preteen Skyler Sors was killed. Three years ago, a new criminal appeared. Two years ago, SHIELD began to take notice of the mysterious Shadow Wolf. Today, Shadow Wolf is high priority. Today, the Avengers are tasked with infiltrating a Hydra base.
1. Chapter 1

"It's awfully quiet."

"Too quiet."

"You'd think Hydra would have more security for one of their top secret facilities."

"Maybe they weren't expecting us."

"Maybe they _were_."

The team fell silent, as they cautiously made their way into the Hydra facility. SHIELD had spent who knew how long tracking this place down, and decided to send in a few people to check it out. And, if necessary, take it out. SHIELD intelligence suggested that a certain criminal and potential super villain was located within the building. She was the main target, but with Hydra, you never knew what you might run into. Best to be prepared for anything and everything.

That team consisted of Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, and Clint Barton. Tony Stark was not _supposed_ to be part of the team, but he had of course hacked into SHIELD's database and found out about the mission, then proceeded to invite himself to the party. The team didn't feel like arguing- though they would never admit it, they were glad to have another Avenger joining them. There were too many unknown variables, and the more people the better. The only person missing was Thor, who was busy on Asgard.

So, currently, Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, and Banner were creeping through the dimly lit hallways. Hawkeye was stationed outside, in a tree. Tony had his faceplate up, feeling it unnecessary to have it down at the moment, and Banner was needed as Banner, not as the Hulk. Yet.

"This appears to be some sort of scientific research facility, not weapon development," Bruce observed, noting the number of doors with signs labeled "Lab _" with number, letter, and word combinations. In fact, nearly every room had such a label.

"Maybe this wing is lab work, but there could be weaponry in another part of the building," Steve reasoned. Best to be prepared for anything.

Natasha simply hummed in agreement.

"This hallway is in pretty crappy condition. It doesn't look like anyone has cleaned in forever," Tony commented, looking around and wrinkling his nose at the lack of maintenance. "Really, you'd think they'd take better care of their stuff."

"I think... I think we may be in an abandoned wing," Bruce stated cautiously. Everything _was_ rather dusty, and the area looked like it had been out of commission for a little while.

"That would explain the lack of security, but Hydra has been known to hide out in supposedly abandoned facilities. My guess would be that we will find more activity either towards the center of the complex, or on a lower level."

"Cap's right. It's a textbook way for organizations to hide secret projects," Natasha commented, glancing around for hidden cameras.

The group continued, weaving through seemingly abandoned corridors, until they came to an intersection.

"Which way?"

"Eenie, meanie, miney, who the hell cares, pick a direction. You know what, I'll pick a direction. We're going right," Tony, ever impatient, began strolling down the corridor on the right before anyone could protest. Steve sighed, but the group followed suit.  
Another five minutes of traveling, and still no sign of activity.

"We should split up," Steve said at last. "We're wasting time. We need to cover more ground, find what we can, and report back. If the target is here, we'll never find her at the rate we're going."

"Sounds good. I'll go with Brucie here, we'll go this way and-"

"No, I'll go with Banner," Natasha interrupted Tony, "If this is just scientific research or experiments and not weaponry, each group should have someone who knows their stuff. Stark, go with the Cap."

Tony huffed. "Fine."

Natasha and Bruce headed off in one direction, while Steve and Tony took another.

"Did Fury give us the wrong address or something? Seriously, we should have found something by now. I'm getting bored."

"I think that's the point. Knowing Hydra, there should be some sort of inconspicuous door or hidden passage that leads to the main part of the facility. The abandoned area will be mostly blocked off, but there will still be at least one connecting entrance/exit in case of evacuation or they need to hide something during an attack," Steve commented, reflecting on his past Hydra encounters.

"They seem to have pulled off the 'hidden' aspect well," Tony deadpanned. Then, he paused "Wait a second, this looks interesting..." The billionaire leaned towards a labeling plate, examining it. Then, swiftly, he ripped it off the wall.

"What are you doing?" Hissed Steve.

"Rewiring. If that fails, I'll just blast through the door. No problem." Tony poked around with the wiring for a moment. "And there we go."

The door slid open silently, and lights flicked on all along the hallway that had been hidden by the door.

"Stay sharp," Steve said, stepping through the door, Tony following, before pressing a hand to his ear. "We found something. Not sure what yet, but it looks like a way in."

Natasha's voice came back over the comm. _"Good luck, we'll keep looking over here."_

"Roger that," Steve replied, dropping his hand back to his side.

Despite the better lighting and the fact that this area was obviously used more often than the empty corridors the team had been traveling, this hall didn't seem to be very special either. There were no doors, no suspicious rooms, and more importantly, no guards. At the end of the hall, Steve and Tony discovered a staircase, which they descended quietly, and which lead them to another winding hall. This one, however, had a door at the end. A reinforced solid-looking metal door, with a keypad beside it.

"Finally, something interesting," Tony muttered, as he attempted to hack through the system. Finally, he just smashed it, and somehow the door unlocked. There was no handle on the door, as it was the sliding sort, so Steve and Tony had to pry it open.

"They must be hiding something big if they have a door this solid," grunted Steve as the pair pulled the door back so they could get through.

Once again, lights illuminated the area as soon as the pair entered. However, they stood fixed in place as they looked around.

"What the hell is this?"

The two Avengers had entered a very large round room, with doors to smaller rooms around the perimeter. In the center of the room was some sort of cylindrical transparent containment cell, looking much like the cell that SHIELD had built for the Hulk and used for Loki. All around the cell were lab benches, computers, medical tools and devices, etc.

A muffled roar caught Steve's attention, and he walked over to one of the doors on the perimeter. Peering through the little window in the door, he discovered a lion pacing in a very small metal-walled cell. Furrowing his brows, he peered through the window in the next door, and found a cheetah. The next cell held a leopard, the next a wolf, so on and so forth. Every cell on this side of the space held an animal of some sort, crocodiles and rhinos and bears and monkeys and horses and birds and more. Over fifty different species, and Steve had no doubt there was another level with more.

"Is Hydra starting a zoo or something?" Tony asked, coming to stand beside Steve and raising an eyebrow at a group of squirrel monkeys.

"Whatever they're doing, they didn't just start. This has been going on for a while," Steve commented.

Another door stood directly across the room from the door through which the two Avengers had come, this one just as sturdy as the first. After unsuccessfully attempting to open it, Tony fired his repulsers at it, and managed to blast through it. Behind the door was a hallway, not extending forward from the door, but running past it. Like the door lead off from the hallway, instead of the hallway leading from the door.

"Still no security," Steve commented, turning right and heading down the hall in that direction, Tony beside him. The hallway was lined with doors on both sides, but the doors were fairly distanced, indicating medium to large sized rooms. The doors on the right side of the hall were closer together than the ones on the left, and when they peered through the small windows some of the doors on the right had, they discovered more animals. But not normal animals.

"This looks like cross-species genetics," Tony stated as he looked at a tiger with scaley plates on its side, sounding both intrigued and appalled. Intrigued because the concept was fascinating. Appalled because there was no way Hydra would stop with animals.

Sure enough, his suspicions were basically confirmed when he saw a cot in one of the empty cells. A small sign beside the door read **CSG-HSCL01**.

"They're doing human experimentation," Steve stated, his tone and expression unreadable.

"Ten bucks says our target is one of their subjects."

The faint click was the only warning the two got, before a bullet pinged off of Tony's armor. Steve whipped out his shield and Tony lowered his face plate, both of them dodging and deflecting the rain of bullets that followed. An alarm sounded somewhere, and running footsteps could be heard from down the hall. Now that the Avengers were aware of the enemy, it seemed the enemy saw no point in being stealthy. Steve and Tony were forced to split up to take out the Hydra hostiles.

"Romanoff! They know we're here. Where are you two?" Steve yelled over the comm.

 _"I figured that out. We haven't run into too many hostiles yet, since we didn't find a way in, and these halls really do seem deserted. I assume you two got in and subsequently set off the alarm. Did you find the target?"_

"Negative. We found some clues but no target."

 _"We have company out here too,"_ Clint's voice sounded over the communications system. _"Looks like this was all a setup, they knew we were coming and are planning to take us down from the inside and out."_

"Romanoff, both of you need to get out there and help Hawkeye. Stark and I will deal with these guys and meet you."

 _"Roger that."_

Steve swung his shield, taking out the guy nearest to him, and kicked another coming at his other side. The sound of gunfire and Tony's repulser beams filled the hall, along with a fair amount of shouting and of course the blaring alarms.

 _"Better watch out Cap, I'm gonna go_ Night at the Museum _on these guys,"_ Tony's voice called over the comm.

Steve barely had time to puzzle over the reference before an angry roar was heard over the sounds of gunfire. _Oh no._ The tiger with scales came barreling down the hall, taking out the Hydra gunmen in its path. But it didn't stop there. It kept coming.

"Oh no," Steve turned and bolted down the hall, having to dodge bullets and avoid an angry tiger. Knowing he wouldn't be able to outrun the beast for long, Steve slammed his shield down on the doorknob of the closest door, and took out the keypad as well, before throwing his full weight against the door and stumbling into a room. He barely took a moment to glance around, briefly noting that this appeared to be some sort of observation area, with what was probably a one-way window spanning the length of one wall. A lab lay on the other side of the window, and it appeared that this observation deck was a level above the lab, looking down into it. Throwing a last glance behind him to the door he had just broken down (and the bullets flying outside it, the tiger was nowhere to be seen), Steve ran forward, held up his shield in front of him, and crashed through the window.

The Captain landed in a roll, leaping back to his feet and scanning the room for exits. The tiger and his unusual escape route had bought him a few seconds, maybe a minute at most, to find a way out of here.

As Steve turned, spotting a door, he spotted something else. A metal table, partially hidden from view by lab and medical equipment. Cautiously, he approached it, shield up in front of him, a voice in the back of his mind warning that he was wasting time.

He came to a stop several feet from the table, now having a full view of it. It was made of cold grey metal, and surrounded by lab equipment and small tables and lab benches holding various medical supplies and monitors and such. But it was what was on the table that caught Steve's attention.

A girl, no more than eighteen years of age, lay on the table. She wore a white spaghetti-strap tank top and a pair of shorts, no socks or shoes or jewelry or anything like that. Her hair was a medium brown color with thin grey streaks, and her eyes were closed, indicating she was either asleep or unconscious. Various monitors were hooked up to her, monitoring heart rate, blood pressure, and numerous other things. She had cuffs around her wrists and ankles that fastened them to the table, and a leather strap ran across her midsection, strapping her down.

"I think I found the target," Steve stated over the comm, talking to nobody in particular.

 _"Careful, she's dangerous. You should-"_

"She's unconscious."

 _"Then what the hell are you waiting for? Get her and get out. Where are you? I took care of things up here, but we need to get out before another wave comes and blocks our escape route."_

"Not sure. Some sort of lab. I had to break down the door to an observation deck and crash through the window to escape that tiger you let loose."

 _"Tiger? What are you guys_ doing _in there?"_ Natasha asked.

Steve didn't answer, because the door he had been eyeing suddenly flew open, and in came more guys with guns. "Stark, I'm gonna need some help to get the target out of here."

 _"On my way."_

Steve ducked as a bullet whizzed by his head, then raised his shield and slammed the edge on the chains that attached the girl's cuffs to the table. The chains broke under the shield, and Steve proceeded to tear the leather strap and remove all the monitoring devices. Tony flew through the window that Steve had jumped through just as Steve placed the shield on his back and was lifting the kid into his arms. "Cover me!" He yelled, dashing across the room. He spotted a door that hopefully lead to a staircase back up into the observation area (it did), threw his weight against the door (it wasn't reinforced like the others, making his job significantly easier) and dashed up the stairs. Tony followed, taking down the hostiles and protecting Steve who was carrying the target.

Somehow, they made it out of the building. Outside, Natasha, Clint, and the Hulk were fending off the last few members of a swarm of Hydra agents.

"We got what we came for! Let's go!" Shouted Steve.

Everybody fired their last shots, before getting out of there as fast as possible. A Quinjet picked them up a little ways away from the Hydra facility.

Once up in the air, Bruce exhaled slowly, sitting down on one of the benches. "Well, that was interesting."

"What did you guys find?" Natasha inquired, glancing at the girl Steve had set down on the other bench. She was still unconscious, which was slightly concerning. All that noise and she was still out cold.

"Besides, you know, the target," Tony began, now out of his suit, jabbing his thumb towards the teen, "we found out that Hydra decided to put _We Bought a Zoo_ into action."

"So that would be the tiger I heard Steve mention."

"No, that was a different tiger," Steve said, checking the kid's pulse to be sure she hadn't died on them. "Hydra had a vast array of animals, both wild and domestic, locked up in small cells. Presumably for some sort of research. But they also had an array of animals that were being tested on. Tony called it-"

"Cross-species genetics," Tony interrupted, "the tiger that was stalking Cap here seemed to have some sort of reptilian traits brought about by a process I'm not gonna bother trying to explain since it will go right over your heads."

"I'm sorry for not being a science genius," Clint stated dryly.

Bruce looked up. "Cross-species genetics?"

"Ye _p_ ," Tony replied.

"Can't the target turn into a wolf?"

All eyes turned to the unconscious teen.

"Steve," Natasha said slowly, "where did you find the target?"

Steve's expression darkened. "Strapped to a metal table surrounded by labratory equipment. In fact, I haven't had a chance to get the cuffs off her wrists and ankles."

Natasha walked over and lifted the girl's arm, examining the cuff around her wrist. It appeared to be made of some sort of rubbery material, probably to avoid cutting into the girl's wrists and ankles. A band of metal was encased by the rubber, with a loop sticking out at one point that would be fastened to a chain. The only other metal part was the locking mechanism. "At least they weren't cruel enough to use metal cuffs. Those would have caused quite a big of damage if she struggled at all."

" _If_ is a big question. Assuming she is a human lab-rat, is she a volunteer or forced?"

Bruce made a good point. They didn't know how loyal this kid was to Hydra. "I guess we will just have to wait for her to wake up. Fury is going to want to interrogate her anyway," Steve sighed.

Meanwhile, Natasha had managed to get the cuffs off of the teen's wrists and ankles, only to fasten a standard pair of handcuffs on her wrists. "Safety protocol," was the two-word explanation.

A short while later, the Quinjet reached SHIELD HQ. The kid was brought to the medbay, just in case, while the Avengers set off for a debriefing with Fury.

* * *

 **I hope you all have enjoyed the first chapter. This is my first time attempting an Avengers fanfic, so my apologies if anything is a little off or any of the characters are a little OOC. If they are, I would love any tips anyone has for keeping them in character.**

 **Just to let you know, I don't have the plot for this story fully planned out. So, later on, if anyone has any ideas for missions and things they'd like to see, let me know!**

 **As always, please review! Reviews make writers feel like people are reading, which in turn encourages us to keep writing.**

 **Coming up next: we will see a little more of the target...**


	2. Chapter 2

She first became aware of the voices. The voices that were also her first indication that something was off.

The target, as she regained consciousness, went through her waking routine. First, give the mind a chance to clear, so that all senses are fully functional and unclouded. Second, listen, and process the information gained through listening. Third, do a quick scent check. Fourth, open eyes and glance around. As soon as the eyes are opened, anyone else nearby could from then on notice that she was awake. In a situation where she was in the presence of hostiles, gathering as much information as possible before being found out was key. Fifth, do a more extensive check of the area, involving turning the head to allow for greater range of observation. Finally, act according to the information gathered.

When her mind cleared, she knew where she _should_ be. She knew that, as usual, she had fallen unconscious during experimentation. Typically, she would remain unconscious for one to five hours, and then wake up on the cot in her cell.

As she listened, the target detected two voices. The first indicator that something wasn't right. She should have awoken to mostly silence, with only the faint hum of security cameras and the sound of her own breath interrupting that silence. Listening more closely, the target discovered that she didn't recognize the voices, which was a further indication that something wasn't as it should be.

Moving on to scent, she inhaled slowly and silently through her nose, taking in and processing the scents around her. There was a chemically tang in the air, the scent associated with cleaning supplies and with medical rooms. Definitely not her cell. There were also three men in the room, all with the scent of coffee on their breath.

The target's eyes flew open, darting around and gathering as much visual information as possible. The room was white, had fluorescent lighting, definitely a medbay of some kind.

Turning her head, the target found that the trio of men consisted of a white-clad doctor and two black-clad guards, standing approximately six feet away, two of them talking in low voices. Tilting her head at slightly different angle, the target found that she was lying on what resembled a hospital bed, and she was handcuffed. But not _to_ anything. She wasn't in any way restrained. Good. That gave her an advantage she didn't typically have- the advantage of mobility.

The process of information gathering took about 45 seconds, or perhaps less.

The target knew that she wasn't anywhere she normally would be. But, given the fact that she had last been conscious in the Hydra facility with an array of scientists poking her with needles, capture was not exactly something that came to mind. She figured that this was some sort of test, a simulation. An oddly timed one, but a simulation nonetheless. It wouldn't be the first time something equally as odd had happened to her.

Acting upon the information she had gathered and inferred, the target was on her feet and had taken out the doctor in seconds. The guards were more difficult to deal with, since they were both highly trained and happened to be armed. She managed to take out one, but the other had called for backup, and three more guards dashed into the room, weapons drawn. Something pricked her shoulder, and then the floor leapt up to meet her, as consciousness fell away once more.

* * *

"Let me get this straight," the one-eyed man began, his fingers steepled together as he peered around at the assorted agents and others standing in front of his desk, "there was no opposition besides locked doors until the end of the mission, indicating that you walked into a trap. The only information you gathered is that Hydra is building a zoo, working on cross-species genetics, and appears to have been experimenting on the target. You don't have any idea why there was a trap laid, or why you were allowed to get so far before the trap was sprung. Is that right?"

"See, zoo," Tony said to his fellow Avengers, gesturing to Fury and apparently defending his own earlier comment about Hydra building a zoo.

"Yes sir," Agent Romanoff answered, ignoring Tony.

The SHIELD director leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, assessing the Avengers. "Any ideas as to why Hydra is messing around with cross-species genetics?"

"Well we can only assume that their goal is to create some sort of super soldiers. Ever since Capsicle here turned out alright the world has been obsessed with it. And before that, obviously, since Cap wouldn't be here without it," Tony replied, jabbing a thumb in Steve's direction at the appropriate time.

"And the rest of you agree with this theory?"

"We won't know for sure until we interrogate the prisoner, sir," Romanoff stated, professional and emotionless as ever.

"Speaking of which, the information we were given about the target was very limited. Is there anything else we should know?" Steve inquired.

Fury once again let his single-eyed gaze drift over the assembly of men and one woman. "I'm surprised Stark hasn't already told you, given his tendency to go digging around where he doesn't belong." The director had not forgotten that Tony had invited himself to the mission.

Tony shrugged, unaffected by the jab. "I tend to let JARVIS give me mission details, unless I feel that it's necessary to read through them myself."

Fury gave Tony a cool look, before standing and moving across the room. With a few hand movements, he brought up a holographic screen, and pulled up a blurry picture of the target along with some records.

"The media calls her Shadow Wolf," Fury began, as the Avengers moved around to get a view of the screen. "She popped up on SHIELD radar about two years ago. However, after some investigation it was discovered that she has been around for closer to three years, at least as a criminal. Not much is known about her. We don't know her age, but based on her appearance we can estimate that she is probably in her late teens."

"She's young," said Steve, "If she's around nineteen now, that would mean she was about sixteen when she started committing crimes."

Fury swipped the files and the image of the target to the side, shrinking the image down as he pulled up a map of New York and expanded it to fill the screen. "Once SHIELD noticed her, we traced back all crimes associated with her as far as we could. We put together this map, to see if we could find a pattern. She doesn't seem to have a specific preference as far as robberies go. She'll rob anything from corner convenience stores to grocery stores to jewelry shops to banks." Red dots began appearing on the screen, indicating locations the target had robbed.

"It looks like she's picking places at random," Natasha commented, her gaze flicking back and forth as scattered dots appeared on the map.

"That's what we thought too," Fury agreed, watching as the dots stopped appearing. Hundreds peppered the holographic map. "Until we noticed this." Fury pressed a button, and a red line appeared, connecting all the dots. There was a collective gasp from nearly everyone in the room. Except for two people, one of whom was Natasha, who had an unreadable poker face as usual.

The dots, when connected, formed the Hydra logo.

Clint smirked. "I noticed the dots were forming an image about halfway through."

"Anyway," Fury continued, "once we noticed the evidence that Hydra was behind Shadow Wolf, we began trying to track them down, along with aiming to bring Shadow Wolf into custody. She's dangerous, and she's affiliated with Hydra. Hence why _most_ of you were called in to infiltrate the facility once we pinpointed it." With that, Fury closed down the holoscreen and returned to his desk, resuming his seated position.

"That's it?" Tony asked.

"You now know just about everything SHIELD knows about her. You were already informed that she has the ability to transform into a grey wolf seemingly at will, and that she appears to have enhanced senses even while she is in her human form. The next step is to interrogate her, find out more about her and see what she can give us on Hydra."

"No history? Nothin'?"

Fury was about to respond to Stark's continual commenting when another agent came into the room. "Sir, the prisoner woke while in the medical bay. She has been given a mild sedative and moved to a containment cell."

"Did she cause any damage?"

"She knocked out a doctor and attempted to take out her guards, but was unsuccessful. Other than that, no damage."

Fury simply nodded. "I assume she will wake up soon."

"Yes sir, within the next half hour," the agent agreed.

"Then I suppose it's time to get some answers."

* * *

 **Second chapter up! A short one, I know, but I'm trying something different. Instead of rather spaced out updates with long chapters, I think I shall try updating more frequently but with shorter chapters. My aim is to have updates that are closer to weekly or every few days instead of every few months. While long chapters are great, I know how annoying it can get for readers when those chapters only come every once in a while. Short but frequent is the way to go with this fic in my opinion. It's sort of like the difference between a movie and a television series, I suppose.**

 **Anyway, I should have the next chapter up within a week. As always, please review. Virtual cookies go to my first reviewer, Freya.**

 **Coming up next: Interrogation...**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** The lines represent changes in time/place, while the xXx represent changes in point of view during the same event. Point of view shifts will not always be marked if there is a smooth transition, but not to worry, they are easy to recognize.

* * *

Fury exhaled slowly, wondering for a moment why Hydra people always had to be so darn difficult. For once, it would be nice if someone would give SHIELD a break and just spill. But of course, the moment Hydra agents got soft would be the moment they were all dead. If things were easy, SHIELD wouldn't be needed, and he'd be out of a job.

"Tell agents Barton and Romanoff I want them in my office immediately," the eye-patched man ordered, his words directed at the same young agent who had delivered the news that the prisoner was not cooperating.

"Yes sir," came the reply.

Minutes later (those two certainly could move fast, and likely would have been there sooner had the first agent not been slow) the requested agents stood once again in the director's office.

"You wanted to see us sir," stated Romanoff. Not quite a question, but a typical way to spark the real conversation.

"I did," responded Fury, leaning forward slightly. "I'm going to cut right to the chase. The prisoner isn't cooperating. We've sent in some of the best interrogators in this facility. We have tried kindness, we have tried scare tactics, we have tried just about every play we know short of physical harm. Either the kid's mute, or we need some new way to get her talking."

"You want us to interrogate the prisoner," Barton concluded.

"Precisely. You are two of SHIELD's finest, I expect you have a few tricks up your sleeves."

"We'll see what we can do," Natasha said.

"I expect that you will."

With that obvious dismissal, the two agents/Avengers left Fury's office.

* * *

The prisoner sat in a metal chair, behind a metal table, inside what was basically a metal box. The walls of the interrogation cell were composed of an interesting yet slightly disorienting geometric pattern. Better than smooth hostile walls, she supposed. Her hands rested on top of the table, cuffed at the wrists to said table. She would have expected no less from a capable captor.

The prisoner had decided that this was most certainly not a test. If it was, it was rather elaborate, and she didn't really see why Hydra would go through all this trouble just to test her. It was pointless, a waste of time. Hydra had better things to do, more important things than put her through an elaborate training exercise. It was a possibility, but an unlikely one.

So then, if she had really been captured, the question was how.

The prisoner knew that she was in some sort of SHIELD facility somewhere. The people who kept trying to get her to talk had made that quite clear. But how had SHIELD managed to get her? The Hydra facility was well fortified and well guarded. Especially the important experiments. It wouldn't exactly surprise her if SHIELD had managed to find the Hydra facility; after all, she had been giving them a literal sign that Hydra was active for three years now. Hydra _wanted_ to be noticed. The prisoner still didn't know why. But it wasn't her job to know why. Just her job to obey.

Like a dog. Like a stupid little obedient dog.

A low growl formed in the back of her throat, but she pushed it down. She was well aware of the cameras hidden all over the box.

The door slid open, and in stepped two SHIELD agents. The prisoner looked up at them, watching them suspiciously, cautiously, warily. Observing their every move, listening to the patterns of their breath, inhaling and filing their scents away. A wolf never forgets a scent.

 _xXx_

Clint and Natasha entered the interrogation cell. It was illuminated, but only dimly. Enough for everyone in the room to see one another, but not the bright lighting of the medical ward.

The first thing the pair of assassins/agents did was assess the prisoner. A young woman, medium brown hair reaching just past her scapulae. Her eyes were two different colors, the left one gold and the right one brown. Odd. She was tense, wary, suspicious. Everything about her screamed 'alert.' She seemed to be watching everything a once, taking in every detail. Though her posture was slightly hunched over as opposed to straight and confident, anyone could tell she had the potential to be very dangerous.

Natasha took a couple of steps forward, while Clint took up residence in the corner of the cell, facing the prisoner, who was seated near the middle of the cell but slightly more towards the wall behind her than the exact center. The wall at the prisoner's back joined with the wall that housed the door to the cell.

After a brief staring contest between the two women in the room, Natasha spoke.

"I hear you have been giving the others a bit of trouble."

No response. The prisoner just watched, silently, bi-colored eyes fixed on Natasha but clearly also keeping tabs on Clint. Natasha waited a moment, before speaking again, her tone even and emotionless.

"Let's get the introductions out of the way. I'm-"

"I know who you are," the prisoner spoke, voice just as empty as the assassin's, "both of you."

"So you can speak." It wasn't a question. "If you know who we are, I suppose you also know that we don't take anything lightly."

"Of course." A response to both statements. The prisoner let her gaze shift briefly over to Clint, then back to Natasha, then back to Clint, and so on.

"Care to tell us who you are?"

The prisoner drew most of her attention to Natasha, studying her, analyzing her. A slight contemplative look flickered in the prisoner's eyes, before the mask fell back into place.

"You know who I am."

Natasha didn't outwardly react, but mentally, she was trying to decipher hidden message behind those words. The prisoner remained still, emotionless, her tone carrying only the inflection needed for speaking. Her eyes gave away more than her face, but even that was very little to go by. The girl had training, that was for sure. Interrogation training. No wonder she had been able to best the other interrogators.

"I know the media calls you Shadow Wolf," came Natasha's response.

There. The average person would have missed it, but Natasha saw it as clear as a flashing neon sign. A slight downward twitch of the corner of the prisoner's lips, and the slight narrowing of her eyes. Natasha had struck the first mark. "You don't like that name?"

And then a slight flicker of surprise in the girl's eyes. She hadn't expected to be read so easily. Natasha inwardly smirked. The girl claimed to know who Natasha was, and still underestimated her. She could practically see the girl thinking, carefully formulating a response.

"That's one way to put it."

A vague response with a whole lot behind it. Every word this kid said was a gold mine waiting to be discovered. Her every answer was carefully chosen, her every action carefully calculated, with mask slips that were no doubt due to inexperience despite the kid's training. All signs indicated that the prisoner was hiding something. Of course, Natasha already knew this. The kid wouldn't be here if she didn't have something important she could possibly share.

"Well, by all means, give me something else to call you, Shadow Wolf."

Natasha was pushing the buttons just right. There was a reason she was one of the best agents around. The woman waited for the younger woman to reply, the latter no doubt debating whether or not to give an answer.

The prisoner finally spoke again. "Brook. You can call me Brook."

"Last name."

"Smith."

"Alright, Miss Smith. What's your real name?"

A flicker of confusion, before a response. "That is my real name." To her credit, the kid's voice didn't even waver.

"Please, I know an alias when I hear one. So what's your real name?"

It was working. Everything was working, just as Natasha wanted. The question how was no doubt dancing on the prisoner's tongue. How could Natasha tell the name was fake? The kid wanted to know. But wouldn't dare ask.

"That's as real a name as you're gonna get." The prisoner's tone carried a hint of defiance, but something else too. Something Natasha couldn't quite place.

"Number then."

The poor kid was barely able to mask her surprise, and her confusion, and- was that worry? The girl threw a worried glance towards the hidden cameras, before looking back at Natasha.

"What's your number?" Romanoff repeated.

"What makes you think I have one?"

"You all but told me you have a number."

Another worried glance was thrown towards the cameras, those two different-colored eyes scanning the walls, focusing briefly on each camera, as if trying to see through it to whomever was watching. Odd. The kid seemed more concerned about a viewer getting information than about Natasha or Clint getting information.

Speaking of Clint, the agent/archer was studying the prisoner from his position in the shadowy corner of the cell. He was casually leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, a look of mild disinterest displayed on his features. But he was, like Natasha, carefully scrutinizing the girl. What was she afraid of? Not Natasha, and not him, though she had every right to be afraid of the famous Black Widow and Hawkeye. She was afraid of something else...

Deciding to speed the interrogation along, Clint left his position and moved around to the opposite wall, the wall behind the prisoner. He stood behind her at an angle, not directly behind her and not in the corner. Crossing his arms again, he made his new post here, in her blind spot. Natasha's gaze stayed locked on the prisoner, never shifting towards him, so as not to give his exact location away.

The reaction was just as the agents expected. The prisoner visibly stiffened as soon as Clint was out of her line of sight. A sign that she didn't like being unable to monitor the actions of those around her, probably stemming from a form of paranoia that comes with working for an organization like SHIELD or Hydra.

 _xXx_

Brook's mind was racing, as she glanced anxiously at the cameras, trying not to appear anxious, before letting her gaze settle back on Black Widow. Brook didn't think she had given the woman any information, yet somehow she was picking all the right stuff out of everything Brook did and didn't say. How? Was she not doing well enough? Did she have a tell that Black Widow had picked up on? This wasn't good. No matter what she did, the interrogators were getting the information they wanted. Brook should have just kept her mouth shut all along. It worked with the others.

But these two weren't like the others. Which was the entire problem.

Brook kept glancing at the cameras because she feared that Hydra was watching. They were always watching. Which meant that they were watching as she failed miserably, unwittingly giving these agents everything they wanted to know. She was supposed to do better than this. What would be the consequences for her failure?

When the second agent, Hawkeye, moved out of her line of sight, it understandably made Brook uneasy. She tensed, and now had to split her focus between the two in two different directions. While she watched Black Widow, she turned a portion of her keen hearing to Hawkeye, listening closely for any signs of... Well, anything.

The Widow asked another question, but Brook wasn't really paying attention to her. The teen had once again let her gaze slide over to one of the cameras.

"They aren't going to shoot you, you know."

Brook looked back at the Widow, puzzled for a second before realizing the agent had misinterpreted the wary glances. "It's not that, just-" Brook clamped her mouth shut. She couldn't afford to talk anymore. No matter what she said, the Widow would find what the Widow wanted in the words.

 _xXx_

Natasha could recognize when a prisoner was done talking. This one was definitely not going to be saying anything else, not right now. Natasha gave a slight nod, a signal to Clint that they were done here. Pushing the prisoner wouldn't do any good at this point. Clint had had the right idea, shifting his position, but it was already too late, the kid had already started shutting down.

"We'll continue this later." With that, Natasha left the cell, Clint right behind her.

* * *

Romanoff and Barton walked through the winding corridors of the SHIELD complex, heading back to Fury to discuss the interrogation. He could easily have watched it on one of the screens, and he probably had, but it was always good to have a discussion afterward. The Director of SHIELD would want every little detail of the short interrogation, and a breakdown of exactly what each word the prisoner had uttered meant, as well as any hypotheses the agents had about what the prisoner hadn't said.

"There's something off about her," Clint stated, breaking the purpose-driven silence.

Natasha hmmed in agreement. "Any idea why she kept looking at the cameras like that?"

The archer shook his head. "She seemed more worried about the cameras than she was about us."

"That's what bothers me. Usually, they can't care less about who's watching outside of the room. Either they worry that whoever is in the room is going to hurt them, or they act all macho and smug. Or they just sit there, with a blank look on their face."

"She tried keeping up a mask. It kept cracking."

"She's obviously had some training, but not much."

"She's not a typical Hydra agent."

"No. But we already knew that."

"You know what I mean."

"I do, and we are definitely going to need to interrogate her some more. But I think we need a different setup."

"Agreed."

By now, the pair had reached Fury's office. It seemed they were in there a lot lately. Natasha raised a fist to knock, but the door opened before her knuckles connected. Unphased, the agents strode into the room, the door clicking shut behind them.

"That was short," commented the man behind the desk.

"It was. The prisoner was shutting down, so we decided to try again later," Natasha stated, speaking for both her and Clint.

"What did you gather from the short interrogation?" Fury inquired. He had indeed watched via live videofeed, but he wanted the analysis from his two agents.

"She either doesn't have a name or has a name she no longer uses. 'Brook Smith' was clearly an alias, but not in the traditional sense from what I gathered. She isn't just hiding a true name, she seems to hold the belief that whatever true name she may or may not have is irrelevant. She has some sort of identifying number, but I was unable to get her to share that number. She disliked the name given to her by the media for whatever reason."

Fury nodded, absorbing Natasha's words, before turning his single eye to Clint.

"She seemed worried that someone was watching the interrogation. Her gaze kept shifting to the cameras, and by the end of the interrogation she was more focused on the cameras than she was on us."

Fury nodded again, before voicing a question of his own. "Why do you think she was willing to talk to you two, but not to anyone else I sent in?"

That question was one that had occurred to both Natasha and Clint as well. Why _did_ the prisoner talk to them but not the other agents?

"We have not yet found the reason for that," Romanoff stated.

Fury nodded again, looking back and forth between the two agents. "Anything else?"

"I think it will be best if the next interrogation isn't monitored by cameras or audio," Natasha said, "cameras obviously make her uneasy, so it is possible that without cameras she will open up more."

Fury didn't reply right away, considering this proposal. "I suppose you won't be wanting backup with you either."

"No. Judging by her various reactions, crowds would likely put her more on edge," Clint agreed.

The director sighed. "I don't like the idea of agents in an unmonitored space with a dangerous and unknown prisoner."

"We've handled worse," Natasha replied.

"I'm aware." Fury was silent for a moment longer, before relenting. "Alright. I'll have you notified of the time and place at some point before the interrogation tomorrow."

With that, the debriefing was ended, and the two agents exited the room, going their separate ways. It was getting rather late, so after handing in some paperwork and performing other monotonous duties both Natasha and Clint respectively called it a day and each headed back to Avengers Tower.

* * *

Only minutes after Black Widow and Hawkeye left, in came several SHIELD personnel, bearing weapons and protective gear. Brook glanced up at them, seeing four guards plus one female agent. The guards stood waiting by the door, while the agent approached, some sort of tablet in her hands.

"You are being transported to one of the containment units. That's where you'll eat, sleep, and stay unless you are otherwise occupied."

Translation: Brook was going to be locked up in a cell when SHIELD agents weren't interrogating her. Not a big deal, really. She had spent the last four years in a cell unless otherwise occupied with testing, training, or missions. She was used to confinement.

When Brook didn't respond, the agent took that as a signal to proceed. She walked up to Brook, snapped some handcuffs on her wrists, and pressed a button on the tablet that unlocked the cuffs that had been securing her wrists to the table. Brook stood, and the agent headed back over towards the door. The teen followed without being told, knowing how these sorts of things worked. The guards closed in around her, their weapons ready to fire at a moment's notice should Brook try anything. It was almost amusing. Flattering, even, that they thought she needed four guards and an agent to escort her through the halls of SHIELD. Back at the Hydra facility, she only had one. But, she supposed these SHIELD people didn't know much about her, and were taking precautions to keep everyone safe. Smart. Unnecessary, as she wasn't planning on trying an escape anytime soon, but smart.

Brook tried to make a mental map of the halls as the group marched through them, but it was insanely difficult to keep track of everything. All the halls looked the same, and there were too many other things she needed to keep track of for her to properly map the route. Oh well. She had a feeling she would have many more opportunities to mentally map the route.

As the group rounded a corner, Brook stopped short. Oh crap. She didn't even notice the guards nearly crash into her, due to her focus being entirely on the horror that loomed just ahead.

A dreaded elevator.

Just _looking_ at it caused Brook's heart-rate to speed up a bit.

"Keep going," muttered one of the guards, but Brook ignored him.

"Hey, um," she called uncertainly to the agent that had been leading the brigade, "do you think we could take the stairs?"

The agent turned around, raising an eyebrow. "Why would we do that? The lift is in perfect working order."

"Lifts and I don't tend to get along," Brook replied, hoping she didn't sound as uneasy as she felt.

For an impossibly long moment, the agent just stared at her, as if trying to see right to Brook's soul. Then, finally, she responded. "Fine. We'll take the stairs.

Releasing a quiet sigh of relief, the prisoner trekked to and down the stairs, eventually reaching a hall that sort of reminded Brook of a prison. How fitting. One of the doors was opened, revealing the room beyond. Simple, grey walls and floor, a cot against one wall, and a small bathroom area connected to the room. It was small, but still larger than what Brook was used to.

After she entered the cell, the handcuffs were removed, and Brook gently rubbed her wrists. She disliked having anything around them. The door shut, officially locking the teen in. For a minute or two, she just stood there in the middle of the room. She suddenly realized how chilly it was; she was still wearing the tank top and shorts she had been found in. Apparently, nobody had thought to fetch her a sweatshirt or anything. Heck, she didn't even have shoes on. It was actually kind of strange that nobody had noticed (and if they did, they hadn't done anything) but who was she to complain?

After taking note of where the cameras were, Brook treated the cell as if it were the one she was accustomed to. In the blink of an eye, the girl was gone, and a wolf stood in her place. If someone hadn't known better, they might have thought that someone had swapped the teen and canine. There was no sign that a human had ever been there, nor that a human had transformed into a wolf. No shredded clothing on the floor or anything of the sort. Hydra had thought far enough ahead when engineering the human/wolf hybrid to recognize that clothing would be a problem. Not only was loosing your clothing every time you transformed inconvenient, it was costly. So, the organization had put their knowledge of alien artifacts to work, engineering clothing with some sort of alien tech or magic or who knows what that allowed it to disappear or something when Brook transformed into a wolf. When she went back to human form, she would be just as fully clothed as before the transformation. Honestly, the teen had no clue how it worked, but she was grateful for it.

Now in wolf form, Brook began to pace around the cell. An action so familiar, that she slipped into autopilot. Her paws carried her in endless circles, while she retreated into the depths of her mind.

* * *

 **Third chapter! This one was rather long, but as I mentioned before, lengths will fluctuate. It all depends on whether there is a good stopping place or not.**

 **Thanks for the reviews! As always, please review. Reviews are how I pay the Avengers to make appearances in this story!**

 **Coming up next: What is Stark up to?**


	4. Chapter 4

"JARVIS, bring up that information again."

"Right away, sir."

Tony reached his right hand over to a small bowl sitting on his work desk, grabbed one of the plump round blueberries, and popped it in his mouth. While he savored the sweet morsel, he leaned back and let his eyes roam over the information JARVIS had brought up on the screens. Skimming the typed documents, he pushed them aside, bringing the blurry image front and center.

"Run facial recognition. See if we can get a match."

"Running facial recognition now sir."

Tony snagged another blueberry, pulling up some other records while JARVIS did his thing. Police reports, Facebook comments, anything he could find regarding the kid that the team had pulled out of the Hydra base.

"Sir, I found a couple of images-"

"Then bring them up. Really, I shouldn't have to tell you to do that."

A handful of pictures popped up, mostly blurry and taken from a phone. It seemed the kid was good at avoiding cameras.

"JARVIS, these are just more blurry pictures of her. I want to find out who she is. I need some ID."

"As I was trying to say sir, I couldn't find above a thirty seven percent match for any known living person."

"She can't have just appeared out of nowhere," Tony comment, eating another blueberry. "When did she first show up? Two years ago?"

"Records indicate three years sir, but SHIELD did not take notice until two years ago."

"Start looking around five years ago to now. Factor age into your calculations and look for a match. Start with anyone who disappeared or was reported dead in the past five years."

"Running analysis now sir."

Tony watched as hundreds of images raced past the screen faster than a person could process them. He reached for another berry, only to find the dish empty. Scowling at it, he pushed the dish aside and pulled forward the bowl of black raspberries.

"Sir, I found three possible matches within the requested timeframe."

Three pictures loomed on the screen. Three smiling girls, all with brown eyes, one with dyed blonde hair, one with shoulder-length light brown hair, and the other with slightly darker long brown hair.

"Talk to me."

"The first one is a sixty-one percent match, Anna Jay. Naturally, her hair color matches that of the subject. In this image, she is fifteen years old. Her parents divorced when she was twelve. She lived with her mother, but stayed with her father every other weekend. She had two younger sisters, ages thirteen, and ten. She attended high school at-"

"How did she die?"

"House fire, she and her youngest sister perished."

"Were the bodies recovered?"

"Yes sir."

"Then it's unlikely that this is our girl. Next."

The first image faded away, and the second was brought up front and center.

"A sixty-four percent match. Susan May, age sixteen in this picture. No siblings, resided with her mother and father. She disappeared four years ago, the body was not recovered. Speculation indicates she drowned while on holiday with her friends at a beach."

Tony studied the picture a moment longer. "Could be. The death could've been faked, especially if Hydra was involved."

"Shall I move on to the next, sir?"

"Go ahead."

"A sixty-five percent match. Skyler Sors, age twelve in this image. She-"

"Twelve?" Tony asked incredulously.

"Yes sir."

"Awfully young to be a Hydra agent."

"Shall I proceed sir?"

Tony squinted at the image, before nodding. "Yeah. We have to check every lead."

"As I was saying, she resided with her aunt and uncle, along with her older cousin-"

"What about parents?"

"Died in an automobile accident when she was two years old."

"Keep going."

"She and her family were killed while out of the country four years ago. Reports stated that they stumbled upon a small rebel group while journeying through the desert and were subsequently killed. The bodies of the aunt, uncle, and cousin were later recovered."

"But not the girl."

"No sir."

"Unclear circumstances surrounding death, no body recovered, no close family. Perfect recipe for a faked death." Tony reached forward, pulling the image of the prisoner to the center and positioning one of the two older pictures on either side of it. Then, he leaned back, chewing a raspberry, flicking his gaze back and forth between the three images. "I'd say they each have equal probability of being our kid. The Susan kid has an unimpressive story, and matches up with our kid's estimated age. Skyler has a more interesting story, but is awfully young. The images are pretty close, so no deciding factor there."

"Sir, if you could give me a better image or perhaps some more information-"

"That's why I built you. That's your job. So quit slacking," Tony stated, "and while you're at it, get me some more blueberries."

"I shall inform Miss Potts that we are out."

"Good. I'm going to see if I can corner Katniss and Widow and find out about the interrogation," Tony stated, standing up and bringing the bowl of raspberries with him.

"I don't think that is a wise idea. Based on past encounters-"

"JARVIS, just tell me when they get here."

"Miss Romanoff and Mister Barton are in the lift now."

"Why didn't you say something?"

"Well-"

"That was rhetorical. Don't answer. Keep digging for information about this mystery kid."

"Of course, sir."

Tony strolled out of his lab, popping raspberries into his mouth as he walked. He took the stairs down to the main living area, planning on cutting off the two spies when they exited the lift. Realizing that the lift was much faster than the stairs, Tony descended them two at a time, not caring that he spilt a raspberry or two during the quick descent.

Sure enough, the elevator dinged just as Tony reached the foot of the stairs. The lift doors slid open, revealing Natasha and Clint, who were engaged in conversation. At least, they were until they spotted the billionaire standing in front of the elevator, waiting for them. Clint groaned, wondering if he really needed a cup of coffee, while Natasha strode briskly past the man, and into the kitchen, projecting an 'I don't want to talk to you' vibe.

Tony, being Tony, pushed the matter anyway.

"So, what's the deal with the kid?" Tony asked.

Clint made his way to the kitchen as well, grabbing a mug from the cupboard and pouring coffee into it, before plopping down on a stool.

"You know, we aren't supposed to discuss interrogations with people not involved in the case," Natasha stated, calmly pouring her own cup.

"Another rule that I have chosen to ignore. Really, when is Fury going to learn that I don't follow pointless rules?"

Natasha put the coffee pot back in its place, then moved around the counter to take a seat beside Clint. The pair of agents sipped their coffee in tandem, a sight that some might find slightly unsettling.

"Besides, I was there when Capsicle pulled her out of that lab. That makes me qualified to know what her deal is," Tony pressed.

Natasha put her mug down, focusing her gaze on Tony. "We don't know what her deal is. She wouldn't give us anything more than an alias."

"You, the incredible Black Widow, master interrogator, couldn't get information out of some kid no more than nineteen years old?" Tony asked, feigning (not really) shock.

"She was too concerned with the monitors in the room to focus on the interrogation," Clint muttered, while Natasha took another sip of coffee.

"Why was she worried about the cameras and audio recording?"

"If we knew, do you think we would be talking to you right now?" Clint challenged. "Or would we have already dealt with the problem?"

Tony shrugged. "I never know with you."

Clint glared at the billionaire, muttering something into his mug.

"We're going to try again tomorrow, in a different environment," Natasha said.

"I wanna come."

Clint did a spit-take, spewing coffee all over the counter and choking simultaneously. "You _what?_ No. Not happening. You cannot interrogate a prisoner."

"Why not? I'm charming, handsome, famous, all of the above. I'm the perfect candidate." By this time, Tony had a glass of wine in his hand, opting for that over coffee. He took a sip, as if that would emphasize his points and strengthen his argument.

Clint hadn't even mopped up his mess yet, choosing instead to stare at Tony as if the man had three heads. "You are the least qualified person I know to run an interrogation."

"I have an awesome suit. I'm a celebrity. I freaking saved New York from aliens. I think I'm qualified."

Clint opened his mouth to continue arguing, when Natasha shoved a roll of paper towels in front of him. "As much as I hate to admit it, Stark might be useful."

Clint was torn between looking wounded and looking insanely irritated. The compromise was slightly disturbing. "Really, Nat? You're siding with him?"

"I'm not siding with anybody," the redhead stated, her expression free from emotion. "But if this kid is used to working with intimidating people, it might be best to send in somebody who isn't intimidating."

Tony's triumphant look turned to one of offense. "I resent that."

Clint smirked, tearing a paper towel from the roll and wiping off the counter.

Natasha rolled her eyes at the childish antics of the two 'men', draining the last of her coffee and putting the mug in the dishwasher. "If you need me, too bad," she called over her shoulder as she exited the room.

* * *

 **And chapter four is up! I decided to split it into two segments, so chapter five will be up shortly. Enjoy!**

 **As always, please review! I can't get paid in cash for my writing, but reviews are nice too.**

 **Coming up next: Interrogation...**


	5. Chapter 5

Brook tapped her fingers restlessly against the surface of the table in front of her. Really, what was the purpose of the table anyway? Besides providing a place to cuff her hands to? Her wrists weren't even cuffed to this table, just to each other, making the table even more pointless. It only seemed to serve as a decoration.

This room was different than the first she had been interrogated in. The basic design was the same, but the faint hum of cameras was absent. The teen couldn't see any either, so perhaps there really weren't any cameras. An odd and unconventional setup, but it put her a little more at ease.

The door clicked open, and in walked-

Tony Stark?

Brook blinked, just to be sure this was real. The billionaire/genius/playboy/superhero did not disappear.

"Sup kid," Stark said, pulling back the chair across the table from Brook and reclining in it, crossing his arms in a casual manner.

Brook stared at him, trying to figure out what sort of joke was being played on her.

"What's the matter? Wolf got your tongue?" The man gave a chuckle, and smirked at the eye roll he earned from Brook.

"What are you playing at?"

"What?" Ok, that was not something Tony had been expecting her to ask.

Brook leaned back in her seat, looking the billionaire up and down, as if to confirm his existence, before meeting his gaze. "Black Widow I can believe. Hawkeye too. They're both SHIELD agents. The uniforms on the other agents are pretty convincing too. In fact, after Widow and Hawk came in, I had pretty much scrapped the idea that this was a test. I figured that I really had been taken prisoner by SHIELD. But you," Brook gestured vaguely to the rather confused Tony, "don't work for SHIELD. So what excuse do you have for being here? And last time I checked, you tend to hire people to do stuff for you. You don't seem the type to interrogate a prisoner personally. Especially one you have no apparent personal vendetta against. Plus, isn't it kinda against protocol to invite outsiders onto a case?" Brook kept her gaze locked on his, raising an eyebrow, as if daring the man to explain his presence.

Tony was actually silent for a full second before replying with a shrug. "I'm bored, I'm curious, and I don't give a crap about protocol."

The teen gave an unconvinced _hrumph_.

"So, care to tell me everything about yourself? Name? Birthday? Hydra intel? Favorite color?"

The girl raised an eyebrow.

"If you care, there aren't any monitoring devices in the room."

"I know. I checked."

"Alright then. Spill."

"Yeah right."

"You know what your problem is?" Tony began, reaching into his coat and rummaging for something in an inner pocket.

"Do tell."

"You, Balto, are too tense. Here," Tony held out a small flask towards the teen.

Brook stared at the flask, then at Tony, her expression one of pure disbelief. "You are seriously offering _alcohol_ to a _sixteen year old?_ "

Tony snorted, retracting the flask. "Of course not. I'm more responsible than that. I was offering you an empty flask to trick you into telling me your age."

Brook opened her mouth, then closed it, then settled for glaring at the billionaire.

"So then, Skyler-"

"Where did you hear that name?" The girl demanded, her entire demeanor changing in an instant. Instead of looking rather relaxed and faintly amused, she was now tense, sitting up and leaning forward slightly, everything about her posture screaming 'defensive'.

Interesting.

"My AI," Tony responded, as if that was the most obvious answer in the world.

"Where'd he hear it?"

"Technically, he didn't hear it."

"You know what I mean."

"Do I? You know, people seem to think that just because I'm a genius, I can read minds. Hmm, I should really invent something for that..."

"Just tell me where your AI got that name," Brook (Skyler) demanded, gritting her teeth in irritation.

"Alright, don't get your tail all in a twist. The Internet, as well as some probably top-secret encrypted files."

The kid said nothing.

"Anyway, Skyler-"

"Skyler is dead."

"Please, can we skip all the cliché villain lines? They're a complete and total waste of time. Also, they bore me."

"Fine. Just don't call me Skyler."

"Alright, White Fang."

Skyler groaned, looking up at the ceiling. If she could have, she probably would have spread her hands in a 'why me' gesture. "You are every bit as irritating as you seem on TV."

"Well, I try."

"Seriously, do you practice in front of a mirror or something? Read a book on ways to annoy people?"

"No comment."

"That was a comment."

"As fun as this is, we are getting off topic here."

"That was kinda my goal."

"So you feign confidence, throw a couple insults my way, and hope I'll just drop the fact that I'm interrogating you and that I happen to know your real name."

"...yes."

Tony nodded. "Yeah, that's usually how things like this work."

"You do this a lot?" The kid sounded surprised.

"Nah. I watch a lot of TV."

"...oh."

Tony watched the kid for a moment, who, sensing the change in mood, was suddenly very focused on a smudge on the table. "So, Hydra."

No response. Skyler continued to stare at the smudge on the table.

"You're obviously connected with them. Hell, you played connect-the-dots with SHIELD and made the Hydra logo."

Still nothing.

"You wanna tell me what the octopi want?"

"I don't know what they want."

"Do you seriously expect me to believe that?"

"No. But that's the truth."

"And you expect me to trust you?"

"Hey, if you wanna know what the king is planning, you ask his advisor, not his foot soldier."

"Point taken. How about you? What's your deal?"

"What do you mean?" The question was cautious.

"Well, generally, people aren't born with werewolf powers."

Skyler's expression darkened for a moment, before she schooled her features again. "No. No they aren't."

"I saw some pretty interesting things when I busted into that Hydra facility," Tony commented, leaning forward slightly, "one of those things was an empty room labeled 'HSCL01.'"

Skyler's hands curled into fists, a subtle movement that Tony didn't miss. She was also still avoiding eye contact, staring down at the table, her thoughts no doubt wandering back to Hydra.

"My guess is that that was your residence."

There was no response from the kid, but that was all Tony needed. The information he had gathered combined with the information JARVIS had scrounged up, he was able to deduce several things. But there was one last thing he needed to check to confirm one of his hypotheses.

"Tell me about Ethan."

Skyler froze. She hadn't been moving much before, but this was an entirely different kind of stillness. A kind that was closer to paralysis. Every muscle in her body had clenched up, and she stared forward unseeing. Her breathing started to quicken, and that was when Tony decided to intervene.

"Hey. Hey! Kid! Focus here." When Tony's words prompted no response, he snapped his fingers loudly in front of her face. "No zoning out on me." He knew a flashback when he saw one, and he also knew from experience that they were quite unpleasant.

The teen jerked backwards. Then, she blinked, slowly, as if waking from a dream. A fairly accurate description, actually, for coming out of a flashback. Her eyes darted back and forth, surveying the room, before focusing back on Tony. She relaxed her muscles somewhat, enough to pretend that nothing had happened.

Tony watched her for a minute, before standing. "Well, I'm going to get going now. Take care, Balto, try not to get rabies or something."

Skyler stared at him, brow furrowed in slight confusion. Clearly, she didn't know what to make of this guy. But, hopefully, Tony's comment was enough to distract her from whatever flashback she had begun to experience a moment before.

Tony gave a wave, before striding confidently out of the room, leaving the teen to just sit there and watch after him.

* * *

"How'd it go?" Natasha had waited outside the cell, wanting to know exactly what Stark had learned the moment he stepped out. Clint was with her, refusing to be left out if all the fun.

"Great," Tony replied cheerfully, pulling out his phone and texting someone while he walked, the two agents joining him.

"Did you learn anything?"

"Yep."

"And?"

"Kid's name is Skyler Grace Sors. Sixteen years old. Lived with her uncle, Daniel Case, her aunt, Merida Case, and her cousin, Ethan Case, after the death of her parents in a car crash when she was two. Captured by Hydra when she was twelve after an 'accident' in Africa which ended up with her aunt, uncle, and cousin getting killed. Hydra experimented on her, giving her whatever werewolf powers she's got now."

"She told you all that?" Natasha was, in all honesty, rather surprised that Tony had managed to get that much information out of the teen.

"Of course not," Tony replied, not glancing up from his phone, "I had JARVIS do some digging, then confirmed my findings by talking to the kid."

Natasha rolled her eyes. Beside her, Barton smirked.

"So you didn't actually interrogate her."

"I got answers didn't I?"

"Point taken."

Tony grinned. "Don't worry, Nat. I'll only tease you about how I got more info than you for 70% of the normal teasing time span."

That earned another eye roll.

"Let's head back to Fury and let him know what we found out," Clint suggested.

"No can do. I have to help Pepper shuffle some stuff around in one of the spare rooms in the tower."

"Why?" Inquired Romanoff.

"So that there's room for the kid."

The two agents stopped dead in their tracks, staring at Tony as if he'd lost his mind. "You have got to be kidding me," Clint said.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

"You know, I never can tell," the archer stated dryly.

"Tony, you can't be serious about this. She's a prisoner of SHIELD. You can't just move her into the tower with us because you feel like it," Natasha reasoned.

"Why not? It's my tower, isn't it?"

"She's a prisoner of SHIELD. Fury isn't just going to let you take her."

* * *

"You want me to just let you take the girl?"

Fury had heard of many strange and ridiculous things from Stark. This was by far one of the most absurd. Natasha stood by, silently, her mask perfectly in place and her body language neutral. But, honestly, she was quite interested in how this was going to play out. Barton seemed to be debating between calling a doctor and punching Stark in the head to knock some sense into him.

"Oh, I don't want you to let me. I'm telling you that she's moving in with us."

"And why, pray tell, would you move her into the tower?"

"Simple," Tony replied with a shrug, "she's been locked up and experimented on by Hydra for the past four years. The kid needs a break."

Fury let out a long, slow breath, closing his single eye and pressing his steepled fingers to the bridge of his nose. Everything about his demeanor said 'I'm being very, very patient with you right now. But I'd actually like to punch you in the face. '

"What's the big deal anyhow? SHIELD's just gonna try and interrogate her more, which worked oh so well the first twenty times. I'm the one who finally figured out who she is. And doesn't SHIELD have, like, a bajillion other prisoners to worry about?"

"The girl has ties to Hydra. If we can get information from her, it may help us slow them down and destroy them altogether," Fury stated, opening his eye again to use his classic cold stare on Stark.

"This is ridiculous," Stark stated, turning to look from Fury to Romanoff and Barton and back again. "Seriously, is that all you people think about? Getting information? I found more information asking JARVIS to run a two second search than you people did the past couple days with all your expert interrogation people and fancy intimidation tactics." Stark, thoroughly annoyed by this point, turned his full attention to the director. "I'm taking the kid. End of discussion."

Fury glanced over towards his two top agents. Barton was staring up at the ceiling, thinking who knows what. Natasha shrugged in response to Fury's questioning glance. While not overly fond of the idea of having an enemy in their midst, she was rather curious about the girl's strange behavior. The teen was different from other Hydra personnel SHIELD had captured. With the girl living at the tower, it would give the spy an opportunity to monitor her more closely.

Finding he had no support from the agents, Fury turned back to Stark. "Have you discussed the idea with the other Avengers?"

"Again, my tower-"

"Which you all live in. If I'm going to let the girl stay with you, I need to be sure the arrangement won't cause a problem."

"They'll be fine," Tony waved him off, already heading towards the door, no doubt to collect the kid and bring her to the tower.

Fury heaved a sigh. "It isn't them I'm worried about," he muttered, but Tony was already out the door.

* * *

 **Chapter five, hot off the press.**

 **Well, lukewarm. I technically have had this nearly finished for a week and didn't get around to adding the last segment until my friend was literally sitting beside me demanding that I finish it. So, I did, yesterday. And today, we have a new chapter. All of you owe virtual cookies to my loyal friend and beta reader Savannah.**

 **Anywho, please review! As much as I appreciate my guest reader Freya, I know they aren't the only person reading this fic. I'd love to hear from more of you.**

 **Coming up next: How will Skyler react to Tony's decision?**


	6. Chapter 6

Pepper was out grocery shopping when Tony texted her. She didn't check her phone right away, first selecting a carton of blueberries that were in good shape and adding them to her cart. Only once she was waiting in the checkout line did she finally pull her phone out of her back pocket to check her texts. She had one new message, from Tony.

 ** _I need the spare room on the Avengers floor cleaned out by dinner time._**

That was it, no explanation. Knowing she would get no further details without pushing for them, she texted back.

 ** _Why?_**

The little dots appeared.

 ** _I'm bringing home a guest._**

Pepper raised an eyebrow.

 ** _A guest who will be staying in the tower on the Avengers floor? We have plenty of working spare bedrooms._**

The dots appeared again.

 ** _This one is gonna be kinda permanent. I'm bringing a kid home._**

Pepper took a few moments to respond, moments her mind took to imagine exactly _why_ Tony was bringing home a kid. The first thought that popped into her mind was that perhaps one of Tony's one-nighters from before he became Iron Man had been fruitful, and now Tony had discovered he had a son or daughter and was bringing the mini-Stark home.

 ** _Who exactly are you bringing home?_**

The dots didn't appear right away, indicating either Tony was distracted or he was thinking through his response.

 ** _Can't say too much now, easier to explain in person. It's Avengers business._**

Pepper didn't know whether to be relieved or concerned. She settled for both.

 ** _I expect a full explanation when you get home. I gtg, love you._**

The dots were quick to appear one more time.

 ** _I'll explain to everyone tonight. Love you too._**

Pepper pocketed her phone and paid the cashier, carrying the bags out of the store and puzzling over Tony's 'guest.' If he had to explain to everyone, that meant that this so-called 'Avengers business' was not known to the Avengers. Sighing, Pepper resolved to just wait and see what Tony was up to.

* * *

Skyler had been returned to her cell after Tony Stark had finished interrogating her. Considering how much he seemed to already know about her, she wasn't sure why he had felt the need to interrogate her himself, but he had, and she was now puzzling over said interrogation as her paws carried her in circles.

It occurred to Skyler that she had now met half of the Avengers. Huh. Who woulda thought.

Anyway, why did everyone have such an interest in her? Perhaps this was fairly standard SHIELD protocol, considering the fact that she was a Hydra agent. If she could even be called an agent. More like pawn.

Aaand there her mind went, sidetracking again with details that were not currently relevant.

Back on focus, the teen was 98% sure that Stark didn't typically interrogate SHIELD's prisoners. Romanoff and Barton, maybe. They were agents, after all. Though, they probably only interrogated the really difficult prisoners. In which case, Skyler should be flattered that Fury thought the duo was needed. But interrogations just weren't Stark's style.

Who would be next? Captain America? With her luck, perhaps. Then she'd meet Thor, then Banner, and everyone would have a party.

Wow, someone was feeling sarcastic.

 _It's because, after having schedules and routines for so long, I'm in someplace new. I could predict things before, find the patterns. I don't know what's happening here._

Skyler had always liked order, to an extent. She hadn't been super into planning out everything and keeping tight schedules, but she had liked to have an idea of what was going on when. It made life easier, more efficient. She had liked having her calendar filled in, and she had liked to be on time for things. Free time was an entirely different matter, in which Skyler preferred to just go with the flow and do what she felt like doing, but when it came to school and extracurriculars and big events she had liked things planned and orderly.

Then, after the _incident_ , she had used a vague sort of order to stay sane while Hydra shaped her into a weapon. Skyler had learned to roughly keep track of the days by what training exercises she performed, or what experiments were performed on her. Since science is exact, the gaps between experimentation sessions were pretty much the same every time. Same with rotating through training exercises. The only real unknown variable was the missions. Even missions could, at least timing-wise, be predicted based upon how long she went without food. If Hydra was starving her, it meant a mission was coming up. The missions were how she earned meals.

But now, Skyler didn't have four years worth of observation and patterns to help her figure out what was coming next or even what time of day it was. Or what day it was in general. When had she been brought here in the first place? That, of course, brought her back to the question of _how_ she was brought here. Surely SHIELD hadn't just marched into the Hydra base and walked out with a prized experiment.

A faint noise brought Skyler briefly out of her thoughts, long enough for her to note the bowl of oatmeal that sat on a tray along with a cup of water, a spoon, and a napkin placed just inside the door to her cell. Skyler ignored the offered meal. It could be poisoned (however unlikely that was) for all she knew, and despite the fact that she despised Hydra, she didn't trust SHIELD yet.

Amidst her musings, Skyler noted the _yet_ her mind had pinned to the end of that statement. A small word, but tinged with a bit of... Was that... Hope?

* * *

Tony strolled through the corridors of SHIELD after his discussion with Fury, on his way to collect the kid. He had already gone back to the tower briefly to check in on how the cleaning was coming, and discovered that Pepper had convinced Happy to help her clear out the spare room. She had then insisted that Tony give her enough information about the mysterious kid he was bringing home for her to decorate. ("You can't just bring a kid to the tower and give them an empty room. It has to be decorated tastefully. Simple enough for him or her to add their own touch, but homey enough for him or her to feel welcome.") So Tony had informed his fiancé that he was bringing home a 16 year-old girl who could turn into a wolf. Pepper, to her credit, didn't seem at all surprised by the kid's apparent powers (she lived in the same building as the Avengers, after all), and decided that greens and blues were the way to go.

Tony had left Pepper to her decorating, and after stopping for a sandwich at a café down the street, had returned to SHIELD HQ and all but ordered Fury to hand over the kid. After a fairly brief conversation (which, my dear readers, you read in the last chapter) Tony had left the director and set off to find the kid.

Tony swiped a card over a key pad, unlocking the door that lead to the containment unit. Put simply, the prisoner level. Whistling cheerfully, the billionaire walked casually over to the cell he knew held the prisoner he was looking for. How did he know this? The same way Tony Stark knows everything he knows about top secret stuff.

Pressing a button on the tablet he had swiped from an agent (the poor agent would probably get into a boatload of trouble for loosing said tablet), Tony released the energy shield that served as a door.*

"Sup Balto."

Skyler paused in her pacing when she heard the release of the shield. Upon looking up, she discovered none other than Tony Stark leaning casually against the wall at the entrance to the cell. _What's he doing here?_

"You're probably wondering what I'm doing here."

Skyler flicked one of her canine ears, confirming his assumption.

Tony watched her for a moment. "Are you gonna, you know, turn back into a human?"

Skyler just continued to stand there and stare at him.

"I'll take that as a no."

 _Ya think?_

"Anyway, I had a little chat with the pirate, and I have some good news."

 _The pirate? Oh, he must mean Director Fury. I suppose the eyepatch is bound to invoke some sort of nickname._ Skyler dared to picture the stoic man (she hadn't actually met him, just seen a picture) with a hat and a parrot on his shoulder. It was actually quite amusing to think about. But what was the good news Tony claimed to have? _Our definitions of good news are probably very different._

"You're moving into Avengers Tower."

Skyler stared at him for a minute, processing the sentence and briefly wondering if she had heard correctly (of course she had, she was a _wolf_ after all). Then, she started laughing. While still in wolf form. If you have never seen a wolf laugh hysterically, know that it is a rather disturbing event to witness.

Tony, for his part, wondered whether Skyler was currently dying. He had just enough time to wonder how exactly a person gives a wolf CPR when he realized that she was actually laughing. "I know that I'm a funny guy, but what exactly are you laughing at?"

Skyler waited until she could breathe properly to turn into her human form. "That was great. Thank you. I haven't had a joke to laugh at in a long time."

"I wasn't joking."

The smile disappeared from Skyler's face, suspicion instead decorating her features. "What do you mean?" She asked cautiously.

"Exactly what I said. I'm bringing you back to the Tower, where you will be residing for the foreseeable future."

Though her features were fairly schooled by this point, Skyler's tone was still laced with suspicion. "Why?"

Tony hadn't actually expected the kid to ask many questions. He had kinda figured that she would just be happy to get out of a cell. But it seemed he had figured wrong, and this would be a bit more difficult than he anticipated. "I figured you were probably tired of cells. Plus, I like you."

Skyler tried to see what ulterior motive Stark might have. Perhaps SHIELD wanted to test how loyal she was to Hydra by putting her right into the perfect position to spy on the Avengers. But why would the Avengers agree to such a potentially risky plan? It didn't make sense. It didn't make sense for the Avengers to want her in their tower at all, no matter the ulterior motive. And it was highly unlikely that Stark was just being compassionate. That wasn't really like him. His comment about cells struck a chord though. She _was_ tired of cells. She wanted nothing more than freedom, freedom from cells and Hydra's bidding.

Tony took her silence as a cue to continue. "Well? You coming or not?"

It occurred to Skyler that this was actually a great opportunity. If she was in the same building as the Avengers, the chances of Hydra trying to reclaim their favorite lab-rat were significantly less. She would be better protected in the home base of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes than anywhere else.

SHIELD might have an ulterior motive, but so did she. "Alright."

The grin on Stark's face seemed genuine enough. "Good. Now let's go, before we all get old standing here in the dungeons."

Skyler stepped out of her cell, following the already on-the-move Stark. However, as they neared the end of the hallway, a problem arose.

"Hey, mind if we take the stairs?"

Tony turned his head to look at her, raising an eyebrow, already pressing the elevator call button. "Use that primitive contraption when we could use this marvelous invention? No thanks."

"I've been in a box all day, I could use the exercise."

Stark sighed laboriously. "Fine, go have your fun on the stairs, I'll meet you on the ground level. But don't move too slow."

Skyler couldn't believe that the man was letting her wander off unaccompanied, given her status as 'highly dangerous' and all, but she would ignore Stark's blatant disregard for common sense at the moment since she didn't have to deal with an elevator. She trotted over to the staircase just as Tony stepped into the elevator, then proceeded to climb them two at a time. She actually made it to the correct floor at the same moment Tony stepped back out of the lift, and she wasted no time hurrying back to his side. The last thing she needed was to have a suspicious SHIELD agent tase her or something for being an unaccompanied prisoner loose in a government facility.

As the pair walked towards the exit, Tony shoved a jacket, baseball cap, and pair of sunglasses at Skyler. "We don't need any of your buddies recognizing you as we head to the tower," he explained. The teen didn't even bother wondering where Tony had gotten the items as she quickly put them on, tucking her hair up under the baseball cap to conceal it. She was most grateful for the sunglasses, which hid the unique coloring of her eyes.

Tony lead the way to his car (a fancy model that he had modified himself. Skyler, having never been into cars, could not name the model) which was parked in what Skyler was pretty sure wasn't actually a legal parking space. But the billionaire didn't seem to care, as he climbed into the drivers seat and gestured for Skyler to go ahead and get in the car already. She obliged, sliding in and buckling her seatbelt just as the car was put in drive.

Tony pressed a button, and AC/DC started playing through the speakers. Wincing slightly at the loud music, Skyler sighed. This was going to be a long ride.

* * *

 **I'm back! With chapter six for you all! And seven right behind!**

 **A little heads up: after chapter 7 I'll be taking requests for scenes that you, my fabulous readers, would like to see. Like I mentioned earlier, I don't have every little detail planned out. Actually, for the most part I just have a few scenes planned out and a general plot line with which I am filling in the gaps. So, that leaves plenty of room for reader requested scene opportunities! I won't use all of your ideas right away, probably a couple here or there as I see fit. But get your scene ideas ready!**

 **I realized that I probably should give you an idea of when this takes place. I tried looking for some MCU timelines, but didn't really find what I was looking for. Basically, this story takes place after the Avengers but before AOU, IM3, and TWS. For the sake of this story, we will say that New York happened in 2012 (something most people seem to agree on) and this story takes place in 2014. I figure that's enough time for the Avengers to all move in together. I originally planned for this story to take place in 2016, but a four year gap without any major events ( since I want this to happen before the three movies I mentioned) just didn't make sense.**

 **Coming up Next: How will the rest of the Avengers react to Skyler's arrival?**

 ***The energy shield thing is like the one used in Agents of Shield for those of you who don't understand what I meant by energy shield. If you still don't understand, send me a quick message.**


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: brackets represent a flashback

* * *

The drive was, thankfully, pretty uneventful. Tony broke several traffic laws, but Skyler expected nothing less of the billionaire. For her part, she tried to remain as inconspicuous as possible. She spotted a couple of Hydra personnel strolling on the sidewalks, doing who knew what, and was careful to angle her face in such a way that they wouldn't be able to recognize her.

Finally, Tony pulled the car to a stop in front of Avengers Tower. Here, he tossed the keys of his car to a waiting Happy with the usual warning to not harm his baby, before exiting the car and strolling up to the front door of the tower. Skyler followed suite, though wondered why they were going in the front door. Surely Stark didn't usually enter through the lobby?

"I want to give you the full Tower experience," Tony stated as they walked in, "so we are going to start at the ground level. Welcome to the Tower." With those words, he gestured vaguely around the lobby.

Skyler glanced around, briefly noted the number of people milling about trying to make appointments with the receptionist, and wished that Tony had skipped the 'Tower Experience' and just took her through some secret passage that would lead up to the Avengers portion of Avengers Tower. The last thing Skyler wanted right now was to be around a lot of people, even if those people went through security screening before getting as far as the lobby.

The teen was so focused on appearing invisible and suspiciously watching everyone that she almost didn't notice the next obstacle until it was upon her. Another elevator. Didn't people use stairs anymore? Honestly, if there is one fear that causes a lot of problems, it's a fear of elevators. Not only are elevators _everywhere,_ people will look at you funny if you always want to take the stairs.

 _Stupid Hydra,_ Skyler thought bitterly as she stopped walking. "So then, where would the stairs be at?"

"Kid, you might like exercise, but you do not want to climb a hundred flights of stairs. More importantly, I do not want to climb a hundred flights of stairs, and there is no way I'm letting you wander around the tower alone right now."

He had a point, but now Skyler was stuck in a bit of a pickle. Stairs were not an option, but she couldn't take the elevator. Tony was standing in the open door of the lift, waiting for her to enter first, perhaps so that he could be sure she wasn't going to run off and disappear on him.

 _Maybe I can do this. This is a Stark Industries lift, perfectly safe. Probably._ The mental pep talk wasn't working, so Skyler tried a different tactic. _Come on, Skyler. The accident was two freaking years ago. Move on already. You can't spend your life avoiding every little thing that makes you uneasy. Get in the elevator already, before Stark gets impatient._ Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the elevator and took up residence in the back corner. So far, so good. Tony entered the elevator too, but he reclined easily against the back wall, the perfect picture of relaxation.

"JARVIS, communal floor."

"Of course, Sir."

The sudden voice made Skyler jump a bit, and did nothing to help her nerves. _That's just JARVIS, Stark's AI_ she reminded herself, trying once again to bring her nerves under control.

"That's just JARVIS, my AI. He has control of all the systems in the tower."

 _Yup, figured that out already. Now if you would kindly stop talking, I'm trying not to freak out here._

The doors closed. Skyler discovered that her fingers had securely wrapped themselves around the handrail that ran around the elevator. It occurred to her that this was not unlike the first time she had gone on a roller coaster. Her nerves had been jumpy, and she had been gripping the safety bar so tight her knuckles had turned white. The only differences were a) she had no bad memories of near-death experiences on roller coasters and b) Ethan had been there beside her.

Maybe thinking about her cousin when she was already fighting off a panic attack wasn't such a good idea.

The elevator started moving.

That was it. Skyler started trembling, and she tried in vain to calm herself with deep breaths. She squeezed her eyes shut, and her fingers gripped the bar even tighter. _I'm trapped in an elevator, I'm trapped in here... No nonononono!_

[ _Skyler dashed into the elevator at the end of the hall, jabbing the 'close doors' button so hard that she wouldn't have been surprised if it broke. A couple shouts were heard as her pursuers were cut off by the shutting doors, and Skyler allowed herself a sigh of relief as she pressed the number 29. Up to the twenty-ninth floor, then onto the fire escape, and from there a leap to the neighboring rooftop. Then, hopefully, she'd be home free. The mission was almost complete. She had the flash drive tucked safely away inside her pocket. Nothing could possibly mess up the mission now. As the elevator climbed, Skyler checked her watch. Good, it looked like she might even complete this mission early. Hydra would be pleased, and she would get a meal._

 _Her musings were interrupted by a loud explosion that caused the entire elevator to shake. Skyler stumbled back, reaching out a hand to steady herself with the wall. Another explosion, and before Skyler could think, she was_ falling. _The elevator was crashing downwards at a startling speed. Panic rising in her throat, Skyler grabbed onto the handrail. How was she supposed to get out of this? How does a person escape a free-falling elevator? Frantically, she looked around, trying to form a plan. But her mind was clouded with panic, and the bottom of the elevator shaft was getting closer, and she would surely die when the metal box crashed. Skyler suddenly found that she had turned into her wolf form, an almost automatic reaction to extreme danger. Then, there was a jolt, and she was thrown back, and then there was nothing. Except a voice. A voice?_ ]

"Kid!"

Skyler was pulled back to reality, and discovered Tony Stark crouching in front of her, looking rather concerned. As Skyler calmed down, and took stock of her surroundings, she discovered that at some point she had managed to end up sitting on the floor (with a hand still holding on to the rail) and the elevator had stopped.

"You ok?"

Skyler nodded, standing up rather abruptly and letting go of the rail. The doors to the lift slid open, and after giving her a questioning look, Tony stepped out. She followed, a cool mask in place, acting like nothing was wrong.

It's a good thing she had that mask in place too, because once she stepped off the elevator she found herself under the scruitinizing gazes of six people, only one of whom looked particularly friendly at the moment.

Removing her sunglasses, Skyler let her gaze drift over the assorted Avengers plus other. The other, a young woman with blonde hair, was the only person with a welcoming smile on her face. The Avengers (minus Tony) for the most part looked slightly miffed, though they were doing their best to hide it. Clint had a smirk on his face for some reason, and Natasha had a calm but cool mask on, much like Skyler's own. Thor looked as though he had only just arrived, which was probably true. Banner looked pretty uneasy, and he probably was itching to find out what Tony had done. Steve was standing in the middle of the group and slightly forward, his arms crossed and a 'we need to talk' look on his face. All of them seemed to quickly size up Skyler, before fixing their attention (and for some, glares) on Tony.

Tony, ignoring any glares sent his way, gave a cheerful smile. "Guys, Skyler. Skyler, the Avengers. And Pepper."

"Hi Skyler," Pepper greeted warmly, though Skyler could tell that the other woman wanted answers just as badly as the rest of the crew.

"Tony, can we talk for a minute? Over in the sitting area?" Steve asked, trying not to be rude, but clearly wanting to have a chat with the billionaire before diving into introductions.

"Um..."

"I'll wait here," Skyler offered. The sooner the team got their questions answered, the better, as that would mean (hopefully) fewer cold, analyzing looks.

"Fine. JARVIS, keep an eye on the kid."

"Of course, Sir."

With that, the Avengers and Pepper all headed to the other end of the room.

xXx

Once everyone was gathered in a circle, Steve got straight to the point. "Clint and Natasha told us you decided to bring the kid heer, to live with us, without consulting any of us. Care to explain yourself?"

Tony shrugged. "That sounds pretty accurate. Although, Feathers and Nat were there when I made the decision, so technically I did consult two if you."

"So you don't see a problem with letting Hydra plant itself in our home base?"

"Personally, I don't particularly like this plan," Natasha interjected before Tony could answer Steve, "but it does give us an opportunity to monitor the target more closely. She might lead us right to Hydra."

"Or lead Hydra right to us," Clint commented unhelpfully.

"On Asgard, we do not let the enemy live among us. We find the weeds and tear them out by their roots, we do not plant them in our homes," Thor agreed.

"Hey, I'm not one for letting Hydra in either. That's why I'm letting the kid stay. I think she's about as loyal to Hydra as Scar was to Mufasa."

Steve didn't look convinced. "That's not generally how it works with Hydra."

"Either way, why exactly are we letting the kid live here?" Bruce asked, "she seems like a liability to me, and the last thing we need is another liability."

"Because it's my tower and I said so. Where else is she supposed to go?"

"Coulda left her at SHIELD," Clint muttered.

"Yeah, in a cage. Another cage. Cap, you saw the first one. She's been living in a cage for the past four years, and you guys wanna send her back?"

"Four?" Pepper gasped.

"Yeah, four. I did a background check on the kid. Family's all dead, she 'died' four years ago, and she's likely been Hydra's lab rat ever since."

"So you mean Hydra got her when she was only twelve?" Pepper asked, sounding rather upset.

"Twelve?" Steve echoed, taken aback. "You mean she's only sixteen?"

"Yep."

Everyone was silent for a moment, processing the new information.

"Look, the kid's here, the kid's staying. You don't have to be happy about it, but I'm done discussing it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go show the kid her room." With that, the genius turned and left the circle, heading back towards Skyler. Pepper followed.

The rest of the Avengers were left looking after them.

"We should keep a close eye on her," Natasha commented.

The guys all agreed with a quiet chorus of "yeah"s.

* * *

Skyler waited in place, just as she said she would, for the Avengers to finish their discussion. No doubt they were all uneasy with this living arrangement, and they had every right to be. She'd be uncomfortable living with someone associated with Hydra too.

Finally though, Tony broke away from the gathering, followed by Pepper. The woman had a very suspicious sympathetic look on her face, causing the teen to wonder what exactly was said in the team huddle in the corner.

"Alright, now that that's settled, time for you to see your room," Tony said, walking right on by Skyler and heading towards the stylish staircase that lead up with a slight curve from the common floor and on to the floor above. The teen followed behind the billionaire, and Pepper walked beside Skyler, flashing the younger woman kind smiles. _Ok, what exactly did Tony say to everyone?_

After climbing up a single flight of stairs, Skyler would have sworn she had just walked outside. The hall looked just like a street, lined with apartments on one side, and on the other side a ceiling to floor window overlooked the city and spanned the entire length of the hall.

On the 'apartment side,' doors lined the hall, surrounded by siding of differing colors from door to door, like individual houses were combined into a long strip. The doors were different colors too, and different styles. There were actual steps leading up to the doors, and stretching between each set of steps at each house was a narrow strip of grass, along with a mailbox per house, to further give the appearance of the residences being outside. Beside a few of the steps were potted plants, a personalized touch.

Only one level was visible from the 'street,' but if Skyler had to guess, she's say that there was probably an upstairs to each apartment.

"This is Avengers Avenue," Tony announced, slowing his stride so Skyler could marvel at the incredible feat of making what was essentially a hotel hall into a street with an outdoorsy feel, "designed to make each Avenger feel at home. Each apartment is two stories, with the upper level extending over our heads above this hall so that each person has a view of the city. The apartments are customized to some degree for each Avenger, as you can see from the exterior decorating."

Tony went on to point out which apartment belonged to which Avenger. The one closest to the stairs was Bruce's, the next Natasha's, the next Clint's, the next Steve's, the next Thor's, and the sixth one was Tony's. Then there was a seventh apartment, and at the end of the street/hall was both an elevator and a set of stairs that led to all other levels the Avengers had access to.

At the seventh apartment, Tony stopped walking, and fished a key out of his pocket. After inserting it in the doorknob and giving a turn, he tossed it to Skyler. "Each apartment has both a manual and digital lock system. You can choose which one you want to use. Most of the Avengers have both set up as a precaution, but for some strange reason almost everyone tends to like the classic lock and key. I prefer the modern system, also known as JARVIS."

With that, the trio entered the apartment, at which point Tony swept his arm outward and announced "home sweet home," before launching into a tour of the apartment. He explained this was originally designed as a guest room in case one of the Avengers brought friends home, and so it was fairly standard, but she was free to customize it if she wanted to.

Extending from the door was a medium sized entry way, with a curved staircase on the right which disappeared up to the second floor, and coat hooks to the left of the door. Extending for about six feet from the door was tile, after which the floor switched to hardwood. Just before the tile ended it connected to a bathroom/mudroom on the left, which housed a washer, drier, and shower for cleaning up after any mission that rendered the apartment's resident too dirty to journey further into the house.

Across from the front door was another doorway, this one leading into a living room, which was furnished simply with two couches and a coffee table, as well as a flat screen TV. If a person were to walk towards the living room and turn right just before entering, he or she would find another doorway, hidden from view of the front door by the stairs, which lead to a small kitchen and dining area.

Upstairs were three rooms. The first, and largest, was an 'anything room' which was completely empty and had a ceiling to floor window serving as one wall and a flat-screen TV on another wall. The second was a bedroom, mostly empty save for a bed and a dresser. The bedroom also had a walk-in closet, and a full bathroom connected to it. The third room was another 'anything room' for Skyler to purpose as she wished.

All the rooms in the apartment were painted simply in a shade of green, blue, or white. The furniture was equally simple.

"I wanted you to feel at home, but I also wanted to give you room to decorate yourself," Pepper explained to Skyler when Tony made a comment about the bland decor, "When you decide what you want as far as furniture, wallpaper, et cetera, just tell JARVIS and it'll get shipped in. Or, if you prefer, I could take you shopping."

Skyler simply nodded in acknowledgement, silently taking in her new surroundings. This was definetly a huge change from what she was used to, and though she was glad to have some space, this was a lot more space than she ever imagined having. On the one hand, she was thankful, on the other, she wasn't sure how she'd adjust to the sudden drastic change.

"Sir, dinner has just arrived."

The interruption from JARVIS was silently welcomed by everyone, considering the awkward silence that had fallen.

"Took them long enough. I should really complain," Tony muttered, before turning to Skyler, "I hope you like Chinese take-out, 'cause that's what's for dinner."

"Actually, I think I'll stay here... Get settled in." In all honesty, Skyler really just wanted to avoid interacting with the rest of the Avengers. And though she was hungry, she doubted she could stomach something like Chinese right away, between the fact that she was rather stressed at the moment and that she hadn't eaten anything but mush for the past four years... Better to take it slow.

"Alright, well, welcome home, Balto."

Skyler forced a smile as Tony and Pepper left. Once they were gone, she wandered through all the rooms again, taking it all in. She spent a solid thirty minutes just staring out of the giant window in the upstairs living room, looking at the city below, thinking. When she finally found herself in the bedroom again, she cautiously flopped into the middle of the bed, testing it out. It felt weird, considering she was used to either a cot or the floor. After lying there for a few minutes, she got up and shifted into her wolf form. She needed something familiar in this strange new place, and despite how she probably was supposed to feel safe, she felt just as anxious as she would have if she were in a cell at the SHIELD base. So, she paced.

And paced.

And paced.

Until sometime around two in the morning, when she crawled under the bed (still in wolf form), curled up, and fell into an uneasy sleep plagued by nightmares

* * *

 **Here's chapter seven. :) Can anyone guess why I arranged the Avengers' apartments in the order that I did?**

 **This concludes the first part of the story, at least in my mind. I see Skyler's** **discovery through Stark bringing her home to the tower as one mini-arc in a way, the next mini-arc being her adjusting to life in the tower and everyone else adjusting to her presence. The second mini-arc is going to be written primarily in short scenes showing interactions and reactions and such. A little different from what we have so far, and after the second mini-arc this story will launch into another mini-arc (most likely a mission), which will be written in my usual style.**

 **So, now is the part of the fanfic where there is a bit of audience participation! As I mentioned before, I will now be taking requests for scenes you would like to see. Just send me a pm with a short (or detailed if you prefer) prompt or idea for an 'adjusting to the tower and the Avengers' scene, and it might make it into this fic.**

 **As always, please review! Or send a prompt, either way. They both show me that people are interested and encourage me to keep writing. :)**

 **Coming up next: a series of short scenes...**


	8. Chapter 8

Skyler's first night in the tower was... Unpleasant, to say the least.

First, after failing to fall asleep, she had paced until two am, and finally fallen asleep in wolf form. The moment she drifted off she was bombarded by nightmares. While this was a fairly typical occurrence, the fact that she would wake in the midst of a nightmare and not know where she was for several terrifying seconds made matters ten times worse. The unfamiliarity was uncomfortable, and in the end, she resorted to what she usually did all night when plagued by nightmares: she paced. In wolf form. After perhaps two hours of fitful sleep.

Eventually, early morning sunlight began to seep through the curtains that were drawn across the smallish window in the bedroom. It wasn't the most functional window, seeing as it didn't actually open, but it seemed as though the window was supposed to be a cozy touch. Eh. 'A' for effort. Not that she was complaining. No, nearly anything was better than a cell, and Skyler truly was grateful for the fact that the Avengers had given her a place to stay. Just because she grateful didn't mean she was comfortable though, not yet.

Taking the time of year into account (early November), Skyler estimated that it was probably around 6:45 am, give or take. Would the other Avengers be up yet? Hard to tell. Also, what day was it? A week day? Weekend? Would that influence the wake-up times of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes? Hmm, all things that warranted further investigation. But for now, she found that a snack was a very appealing idea, as was avoiding all interaction with other tower residents.

Remembering the small refrigerator that was located in her 'apartment,' the teen padded out of her room and down the stairs. Upon reaching the kitchen, she shifted back to human form, and tugged open the fridge, shivering slightly as the cool air floated out. The fridge was, sadly, empty. Except for a small note on the top shelf.

 _ **Skyler,**_

 _ **If you're hungry, feel free to grab something from the main kitchen. I wasn't sure what you would like, so I didn't do any special shopping. You're bound to find something out there, though.**_

 _ **-Pepper**_

It looked like a trip to the main Avengers communal floor was unavoidable.

Sighing, Skyler closed the fridge door, and contemplated her next move. She needed to scope out the area, she decided, and find out if the Avengers were up. If they were, she could retreat back to her room unseen, and wait for them to leave and do avenger-y stuff. If they weren't, she could snag a snack, and then retreat to her room.

Good plan. The teen exited the kitchen, and headed towards the front door.

"Pardon me, Miss Sors."

Skyler jumped at the sudden voice that interrupted the silence reigning over her apartment. Realizing it was only JARVIS, she took a steadying breath, before replying cautiously.

"Yes?"

"Miss Potts requested that I inform you that there is a sweatshirt and sweatpants for you located in your bedroom closet. She was unsure of your size, but thought you might appreciate them."

"She got me clothes? When?"

"Prior to your arrival yesterday."

"Oh." Skyler pondered this for a moment, quite frankly surprised by the thoughtful touch. Pepper had said that she would be willing to take Skyler shopping, and she had decorated the apartment, but the teen hadn't imagined the hospitality would extend as far as purchasing some comfort clothes for the new guest. Skyler certainly doubted that the other tower residents had been as thoughtful, given their reactions to her arrival.

Deciding an extra layer of clothing would be nice, the teen went back upstairs and opened up her closet. Sure enough, right next to the door, hung a plain navy blue hoodie and sweatpants. Taking the sweatshirt off the hanger, Skyler held it out in front of her, before tugging it over her head. It was a bit baggy, but that was mostly due to the fact that Skyler was quite a bit underweight. Other than that, it fit fairly decently. Pepper had guessed Skyler's size about right, as far as height and sleeve length go. The sweatpants Skyler decided to leave, because a). They were unlikely to fit well and b). They would hinder a quick human to wolf transformation. A sweatshirt she could easily shed, or could be worn in wolf form with little hindrance, but sweatpants wouldn't work. Actually, this would be a problem with any new clothes Skyler purchased. Perhaps Stark could figure out the formula Hydra had used to make her current clothing transformation-compatible. She'd have to ask, sooner or later, if she was going to stay in the tower.

But that could wait until after breakfast.

Once again, the teen ventured downstairs. This time, though, she went to the front door. Pocketing the key, she opened it quietly, peering down the hall before daring to step outside. All was quiet. Skyler closed her front door just as silently as she had opened it, then tiptoed down the hall as quickly as possible, hoping that an Avenger wouldn't choose this moment to exit their own apartment.

She made it safely down Avengers Avenue, and safely down the stairs that lead down to the common area. In fact, she made it safely all the way to the kitchen. There, she cautiously opened the fridge, and was shocked by how fully packed and highly organized it was. It seemed that someone took great care to keep the fridge arranged neatly, though a few suspicious packages dared to defy the organization and were haphazardly shoved in there. Not sure what was safe to eat, for no doubt some Avengers had food that they claimed specifically as theirs, she went with the safest option she could find: a head of lettuce. Not at all the most filling option but probably a safe choice both for avoiding the wrath of hungry Avengers and for easing her way back into eating solid food.

Certain that she had chosen wisely, Skyler unwrapped the lettuce, rinsed it off, and began to peel off the leaves and eat them while leaning up against the counter. It was delicious lettuce, especially so for someone who has not eaten lettuce or any other normal food item in four years. However, she only ate about a quarter of the head of lettuce before she wrapped it up and placed it back in the fridge, precisely where she had found it.

The teen was just closing the refrigerator door when her keen hearing picked up the faint sound of elevator doors opening. Her eyes darted to the stairs she had descended only a handful of minutes earlier, and she wondered if she could make it back up the stairs before the person in the lift managed to catch sight of her. But alas, she had no such luck, as a slightly disheveled Tony entered the kitchen, an empty mug in his hand. He appeared to be having a conversation with JARVIS.

"Remind me again why I don't have a coffee maker in my workshop?"

"Ms. Potts strictly ordered me not to permit you to have a coffee maker in your workshop, so that you are forced to come and interact with the rest of society if you wish to have coffee, and to prevent you from living in your workshop."

"And why exactly do you take orders from someone other than me?"

"Perhaps there is a flaw in my programming."

Tony snorted at that. "As if." He then noticed that he was not the only person in the room, and grinned upon seeing the newest tower resident. "Hey Balto. Up early?"

"Er, yes," Skyler replied awkwardly. "But I was just leaving."

"Aren't you gonna stay for breakfast? The others should be here soon."

"No thanks, I think I'll just head back to my room."

Before Tony could protest, the girl had exited the kitchen and made it safely back to her apartment, leaving the billionaire with a slight frown on his face.

* * *

 **Yay, new chapter! A short one, yes, but I did warn you that the next few would be short. I'm still accepting suggestions for scenes you fabulous readers would like to see.**

 **Coming up next: will Skyler actually talk to any of the Avengers?**


	9. Chapter 9

After the awkward run-in with Stark, Skyler made an effort to be a lot more careful in her tower wanderings. She used her enhanced senses and Hydra training to keep track of where each Avenger was at all times, and whether or not they'd likely catch her outside her room. In this way, the teen managed to sneak down to the kitchen fairly regularly for a week, snagging small snacks and vanishing back to her apartment before anyone had a chance to stumble upon her.

More importantly, Skyler used this opportunity to observe the Avengers.

After living with Hydra for four years, the teen had learned that one should _always_ know their company. Especially if said company consists of a motley crew of super soldiers and assassins, earth's mightiest heroes or not. Skyler needed to understand them, their habits, their triggers. What did they like to do? What would set them off? What would calm them down? All these tidbits of information could help Skyler learn how to behave around them, if she ever felt the need to come out of hiding long enough to hold a conversation.

At the root of all this intel gathering lay paranoia and mistrust. What were the Avengers' motives in taking her in? It made absolutely _no sense_ that they would just let a Hydra pawn into their midst without batting an eye. Well, to be fair, it was Stark's doing, but still, Skyler couldn't wrap her mind around _why_ and the uncertainty of _not understanding_ was driving her crazy. What did they want from her? Was she here for observation? Her apartment just a glorified cell, SHIELD's way of luring her into a false sense of security? Did they want to use her for her powers?

The rational part of her mind told her that _that_ wouldn't make sense either, what reason could SHIELD have to do that, and Stark appeared to have acted of his own choice, but the rational part of her mind was a lot quieter than the anxious, paranoid part that said she was just being used somehow and that Hydra would get her back eventually anyway so what difference did it make and-

The teen found herself panting heavily, leaning against a wall in her bedroom, anxiety clawing at her chest as all these thoughts flitted through her mind, and she realized that she really needed to go for a walk of some kind.

Clad in the same shorts and tank-top she had worn a week ago when she first arrived at the tower, Skyler padded down the stairs of her apartment and cracked open the door, peering down the hall and listening for any sign of an Avenger. All the scents were at least a few hours old, so after a moment she slipped out the door and tiptoed down the hall. No one was down below in the common area, and as she snuck towards the kitchen she found it to be empty. The elevator showed no signs of bearing a passenger up to this floor. Confident in her solitude, Skyler made her way to the stairwell, opened the door, and stepped onto the landing.

Taking a breath, she shifted into her wolf form, before descending the staircase as fast as her canine paws could carry her. It felt good to stretch her legs, and as she leapt from stair to stair, sometimes skipping an entire set in one leap, she felt some of the tension that had been building over the last week fade away. She shut off her thought processes for a little while, focusing on the exercise, on not mis-stepping and tumbling down the stairs. After what seemed to be a hundred flights (and very well may have been, but she she wasn't counting) the girl-turned-wolf spun around and began climbing upwards again.

She repeated this process twice, running all the way to the top of the tower and then down again, and on the second ascent she slowed down and allowed herself to think. This time, instead of letting her mind run wild with conspiracy theories (as she had done for the past seven days) she tried to truly process what was happening.

So she'd been captured by SHIELD. How, she didn't know. She'd have to ask an Avenger, if she ever drew up the courage to talk to one. Tony Stark had brought her home to the Avengers Tower for some reason. The Avengers seemed mildly irked by this. For her part, the teen had avoided all of them completely for a week, calling it "observation."  
 _You could probably observe a lot more if you actually, you know, interacted with them in any way,_ Skyler's snarky side commented unhelpfully. It had a point. Yet, the thought of talking to any of the Avengers made her uneasy.

Well, except maybe Stark. Something about his sass, lack of filter, and 'I do what I want' attitude was weirdly comforting after ages of being surrounded by cold, unfeeling agents and harsh orders. But that didn't mean she trusted him. Couldn't, not after so short a time.

As the teen neared the right floor (somehow she remembered the number, and thankfully the doors in the stairwell had numbers) she shifted back into her human form. She climbed the last few steps, muscles burning in a wonderful way, before pausing on the landing to wipe her sweaty palms on equally sweat-soaked pants and take a moment to catch her breath. A cold shower would feel really nice about now, but Skyler found she didn't want to return to her apartment. Not yet. Now that she'd sort of broken out of whatever anxious mindset she'd been in, she was reluctant to return to her rooms so soon. Maybe she could grab a snack, then go shower.

Skyler grasped the door handle and pushed open the door, stepping through and enjoying the feeling of the cool floor under her bare feet. It soothed her aching feet as she padded towards the kitchen, and strengthened the peace that had settled over her being.

A peace which shattered when the teen entered the kitchen only to find all of the Avengers assembled around the table.

How did she not smell that?

Before she had the chance to turn and run, Stark spotted her, and a wide grin split his face. "Hey, Balto! Come have lunch with us!" He patted the open seat beside him.

At that, every head turned, and suddenly Skyler found six sets of eyes fixed on her. She shifted uncomfortably under their gazes. How could she deny that request? She'd been avoiding them for a week, and there was no way she could run to her room and hide without being super obvious about that fact. "Um..."

But then the billionaire was standing and striding across the room, and escorting her to the seat, so what could she really do?

The girl sat down stiffly and uneasily, uncertain of how to behave in this situation. Everyone continued to watch her, their expressions unreadable. To her right sat Captain Rogers, to his right Thor, then Agent Romanoff, then Hawkeye, then Dr. Banner. To her left, Stark plopped into his seat. He scooted his chair loudly across the floor, drawing the attention of all the Avengers, and reached across the table for a bottle of mustard.

"We're having sandwiches kid. Help yourself."

Skyler just blinked at him in astonishment, but everyone else seemed to have broken out of the trance, and soon the kitchen was filled with noise as everyone clambered for various sandwich fixings. It was almost as if the new addition to the lunch group was forgotten.

Almost. An undercurrent of tension lingered above the table like a faint cloud, barely visible yet full of rain.

Seeing as everyone else was eating, and since she came to the kitchen for food in the first place, Skyler snagged two slices of bread and some unidentified deli meat (probably turkey) and slowly took a bite, then another. Most people around her had multiple sandwiches; Thor held the record at 20 overstuffed heaps that could barely count as sandwiches anymore. More like food towers.

The food disappeared quickly. The Avengers ate as if they'd never eaten before and would never eat again, practically swallowing sandwiches whole between short quips and fights over various fixings. In the end, only empty plates remained, and silence fell. The Avengers glanced at one another, seemingly having silent conversations all around the uneasy teen. _One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn't the same_.

"So Skyler," Captain America broke the silence, effectively stopping Skyler's mental rendition of the Sesame Street song. She turned her head to the right, though snuck glances at the rest of everyone. Their eyes were on her and Rogers.

"We know you've been avoiding us."

Ah. So they had noticed.

"We'd like to know why."

Why? Skyler didn't know how to respond to that. She'd avoided them because it was easier than interacting with them. Easier than enduring their mistrustful glances, easier than answering their questions. Besides that, she didn't trust them or understand their actions.

After a pause, the teen just shrugged, averting her gaze and looking down at her empty plate.

"Look, Kiddo," Stark spoke this time, "this is a lot to take in. And we're not exactly a warm, cuddly group. But you gotta work with us here."

"Why?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why is this all happening? Why am I here? Why are you letting me stay at your base? I'm a Hydra experiment; I could be dangerous. I could be a spy or something. Or do you normally let spies live with you?" She made her words confident, defiant even. She glared up at Tony, a challenge in her gaze, demanding answers.

But it was just a front, behind which was an anxious kid who's world was a mess and who didn't know up from down anymore.

"Are you?"

Skyler blinked at Stark's reply. "What?"

"All that you just said. Are you a dangerous Hydra spy sent on an elaborate mission to gather intel on the Avengers and tell the Octopi that-" he leaned in conspiratorially and stage whispered, "-we sometimes eat sandwiches as a group?"

The teen glared some more, the look more real this time. "I could be."

"But are you?"

She sighed, deflating. "No."

"Excellent. Then we've got nothing to worry about. Good chat." With that, the billionaire shoved back his chair and stood, gathering his dish and bringing it to the sink. The rest of the Avengers followed suit, and the kitchen was once again filled with noise.

Skyler stared, trying to make sense of what just happened. She found herself helping with the cleanup, carrying dishes and empty bottles of ketchup to the appropriate places. One by one, the residents of the tower disappeared, until just her and Stark remained in the kitchen.

"You never answered my question."

Stark put down the container of sliced tomatoes he'd been holding and sighed. Then, he turned to face the teen, serious dark brown eyes meeting chocolate and gold. "Because no kid deserves to be locked up for years on end and treated like a circus animal." He held her gaze for a moment, before spinning on his heels and sliding the tomatoes into the fridge.

"JARVIS, remind me that I need to hire a cleaning crew to do this sort of thing for me. I'm too busy being a genius billionaire ex-playboy philanthropist to be playing Tetris with sliced vegetables."

"Noted, Sir. Perhaps I should also hire someone to remove the moldy cheese."

"Don't you sass me."

"Of course not, Sir."

With that, Tony Stark strode out of the kitchen. Then leaned back and stuck his head in the doorway. "Dinner's at 6, be there or go hungry." He disappeared, then leaned back again. "And you might wanna shower first. No offense, but you smell worse than Steve after a run."

Skyler stood alone in the kitchen for a moment after the genius left. A small smile spread across her lips. Maybe this wasn't gonna be that bad.

Hopefully.

* * *

 **A/N** : Hey all, I'm back again with another chapter for you. Sorry it took so long, I'm lacking muse at the moment. At least for this particular part of the story- I just wrote a chapter that takes place during Age of Ultron. Maybe I'll let you have a sneak peak...

Anyway, I feel like this is the true end of the arc. From now on (until the end of the second arc) will be Skyler getting to know the Avengers a little better, and vice versa, and everyone acclimating. I haven't decided what the third arc will be. Maybe a mission. We'll see. For now, I have an important question: do you want to read about the first group dinner, or shall I skip ahead a bit?

For those of you asking whether this will follow canon, the answer is yes and no. Skyler's presence will mess with canon a bit, and _Civil War_ and _Spider-Man: Homecoming_ severely messed with my plans, so I don't know yet whether I will follow those two.

That's all for now. I'll see you lovely folks in the review section.


	10. Chapter 10

One cool shower and a couple of hours later (in which Skyler decided she really ought to do something about her lack of clothing, considering her only clothes besides a sweatshirt and sweatpants were soaked in sweat. She ended up hand washing and blow-drying them, only to discover a Stark-ified washer and dryer downstairs.) the tower's youngest resident made her way to the dining room. She tapped her fingertips against her thigh as she walked, subtly (or perhaps not so subtly, when one lives with spyassassins and supersoldiers) releasing nervous energy.

A trip down the stairs and a few paces across the living area, then through the kitchen, and then she was there, 5 minutes early, and the only person in the room. Food was already on the table in multicolored dishes with steam-clouded covers, various aromas wafting into the air. The teen's mouth watered as she walked around the table, and she inhaled deeply, enhanced nose brightening the already tantalizing scents. _Steak. Mashed potatoes. Steak. Carrots, peas, corn. Steak._ If she had a tail, it would have been wagging right about now.

"Something smell good?"

Skyler whirled around, stance shifting to the defensive, but it was only Rogers standing in the doorway. He wore bright red oven mitts, and held a plate in his hands, upon which rested a golden loaf of bread. A knowing smile curved his lips.

The teen relaxed a fraction and ducked her head slightly as a bit of rose crept up her cheeks. "Yeah." She looked at the bread in the Captain's hands, then at the table, and finally at the man himself. "Did you... Make all this?" Her expression was one of pure disbelief and amazement.

Rogers nodded. "Yep. Someone's gotta make sure Tony doesn't order take out every night." He strode forward and set the bread platter on the table, before removing the oven mitts and checking his watch. "Speaking of which, the others should all be here in a minute. Go ahead and sit wherever."

Sure enough, the rest of the team piled into the dinning area at precisely six o'clock, and wasted no time in getting seated and piling their plates high with food. Once again, Skyler ended up sandwiched between Stark and Rogers. The billionaire had a decent sized piece of meat on his plate, and was currently dumping a hearty helping of mashed potatoes on top. The rest of the Avengers seamed to be doing the same. All, that is, except for Rogers, who was watching Skyler with a slight downward tick at the corner of his mouth.

"Go on, help yourself," he said when she noticed him watching.

"I..." The girl trailed off, looking around at the enormous amount of food, and at everyone chattering and scooping various food items from the dishes. Her stomach rumbled. She really was quite hungry. But she couldn't bring herself to take anything.

 _Food is a reward. You earn your meal, and you remember your place._

The words of Hydra echoed in her head, and her appetite promptly disappeared.

"You first," she said finally, nodding at the soldier's own empty plate.

The blonde shook his head. "Chef eats last."

Well, she couldn't argue with the Captain, and since everyone else seemed to have taken as much as they desired, they started to take notice of the teen's lack of movement. Slowly, hesitantly, Skyler reached for the dish closest to her. It was filled with steamed vegetables. She spooned some onto her plate, then replaced the dish. Picking up her fork, she took a bite, chewed, and swallowed.

"Don't you want some steak?" Rogers asked.

Skyler paused, fork poised above her veggies, and turned her gaze towards the meat platter. Yes, she'd like some steak. But it was all the way at the other end of the table, near Thor, and she didn't want to be a bother...

"Hey Goldilocks," Stark called out, "care to share that steak with the rest of us?"

"But of course, Man of Iron."

Thor passed the platter around, and Stark set it between Skyler and the Captain.

"Eat up, Balto, can't have you dying of starvation in my tower. Bad for PR."

The girl muttered a quiet thanks before selecting a small piece, cooked rare. Apparently satisfied, Rogers began filling his own plate, and the chatter around the table picked back up.

"And then, I gave a mighty shout, and swung mjonior upon the giant's head-" Thor regaled Dr. Banner with a tale of a prior battle.

"So I was thinking, if we reverse the energy channels-" Stark was also speaking to Banner. The doctor nodded and hummed in appropriate places in response to both chattering men.

Romanoff and Barton muttered quietly in Russian. Skyler wished she could hear above the noise; she was curious about what they might be discussing, and since she spoke Russian, she would've been able to understand them.

The aforementioned archer noticed her watching and paused mid-sentence. He simply stared for a moment, before speaking louder, above the din. " _You speak Russian?_ "

The teen nodded and avoided his gaze, and that of Romanoff, who was by now also looking at Skyler curiously. " _Sorry_ "

" _Don't be,_ " he said, a mischievous grin spreading across his face, " _This means the three of us can have secret conversations. Watch._ "

He started speaking to Romanoff again, this time louder so Skyler could hear. Both he and the red-head shot glances and glares Stark's way. " _Like this, we can pretend to be talking smack about Tony._ "

" _But really, we could be talking about anything,_ " Romanoff said, " _We could debrief after a mission, without anyone getting curious._ "

" _Or,_ " Barton said, shooting a particularly nasty look towards Stark, " _We could just spout nonsense. It's pretty fun._ "

Skyler couldn't help the small smile that tugged at her lips. She watched the spy-assassins, then shifted her gaze to Stark. He continued his babbling, but when he turned to get more potatoes, he just about froze from the force of assassin glares, and his face folded into a deep frown.

"What? What did I do?"

Romanoff rolled her eyes. " _Pumpkin pie is superior to apple._ "

" _Don't tell Mr. All-American over there, I think he'd launch into a speech about patriotism and tradition._ "

" _I did once. His face was priceless._ "

" _Speech?_ "

" _Speech._ "

" _Ha. Knew it._ "

Stark frowned harder. "Guys, this is not fair. No talking about people right in front of them if they can't understand you. Now, as the owner of this table, I demand you explain what you are saying about me."

Barton wrinkled his nose in disdain. " _If Stark were an animal, I think he'd be a kitten._ "

" _Nah, he's not cute enough to be a kitten._ "

" _He is when he pouts like that._ "

Skyler choked on her water in sputtering laughter. All eyes turned to the teen as she coughed, face turning red, until she managed to get her breathing under control again. "I'm fine."

Stark stared at her for a moment, gears turning. Once they clicked, his frown morphed into an indignant scowl, and he whirled on the assassins, pointing an accusatory finger at them. "No. You are not corrupting the kid with your spy games."

" _Whatever you say, Pumpkin Spice Kaboodle._ "

* * *

 **A/N** : Woohoo! We made it to ten chapters folks! May there be many more.

Skyler has finally eaten two meals with the Avengers without running away. That's a good sign, don't you agree? I wonder if things will start to change now... I suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

So, what do you all think? Advise, questions, ideas? I love hearing from my lovely readers, it makes my day that much brighter. So go ahead, leave a review, or shoot me a message.


	11. Author's Note

Hey everyone,

I'm sorry to say that _The Iceberg_ is going to be on hold for a little bit. I need to take some time to really consider Skyler's character, as I suddenly found this story taking a very different direction from what I had intended. I think I may end up re-writing this story completely. Perhaps I will come back to this as an alternate universe/alternate ending sort of thing, but for right now this version of _The Iceberg_ is paused. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited. You guys encourage me to keep writing. I'm sorry to have to stop this story like this, but I hope you all will enjoy reading the new version, which I plan on starting in 2018.

Thank you,

Spotted


End file.
